(The Philadelphia Daily News posted the following article by Jim Nolan on its website on October 24.)
PHILADELPHIA — Yesterday’s monthly meeting of SEPTA board members started 11 minutes late.
Perhaps they took the train.
Over the last 17 months, the transit agency has compiled a dismal on-time performance record on its regional rail lines, the head of a passenger’s advocacy group charged yesterday.
Citing statistics he said were provided by SEPTA itself, Don Nigro, president of the Delaware Valley Association of Rail Passengers, said SEPTA regional rail trains arrived on time to their destinations only 85 percent of the time.
The industry standard is considered to be 90 percent or better.
By comparison, Nigro said that over the last year, NJ Transit had a 93.1 percent on-time performance.
Statistics provided by the Long Island Rail Road from January through July 2003 showed a 93 percent on-time performance. Metro-North, which services New York City’s northern suburbs, reported a 96.6 percent on-time performance during the same seven-month period.
“In the past two months, how many minutes of board discussion have been focused on this crisis?” Nigro asked the board yesterday during the public comment portion of an otherwise rapid and uncontested 15 minute meeting.
There was no response in the room.
“That was not a rhetorical question,” Nigro said.
At that, SEPTA Board Chairman Pasquale “Pat” Deon piped up.
“It is an issue for the board to be taking seriously,” he said, adding that the issue was being examined, and noting that there are “extenuating circumstances” that may explain the comparatively poor on-time percentage.
After the meeting, SEPTA General Manager Faye Moore spared a few moments between congratulating champions of SEPTA’s annual bus rodeo to address the issue in greater detail.
Moore explained that a large portion of the traffic on SEPTA’s regional rail system falls under the control of dispatchers for Amtrak, which has its own schedule of trains to accomodate.
Officials said six of the seven regional rails share some common track with Amtrak throughout the 260-plus miles of the system, though at least 60 percent of that system is owned and controlled by SEPTA.
They said the system has also been subject to several long-term improvement projects on some of its busiest lines that have invariably led to delay.
“I’m not saying we’re happy about it,” said Moore, who accused Nigro of “Showboating.”
To Nigro, however, SEPTA officials have gotten a free ride on the tardiness issue for too long.
In fact, he said SEPTA’s system of actually documenting its on-time performance – relying on the individual train crews themselves to file a report when they are more than 15 minutes late – lends itself to underreporting an already serious problem.
“They don’t dispute, they just make excuses,” Nigro said of the agency response.
“I think it’s an accountability problem,” he said. “At any other commuter railroad, two months at or below 90 percent would be cause for alarm. They’ve had 17 months.”
Still unknown is whether the performance is affecting the transit agency’s bottom line. SEPTA lost some $800,000 in revenue in September – a drop attributed to Hurricane Isabel and the Catholic teachers strike.
The agency has a deficit of $11.7 million year-to-date, and is still facing a yawning budget gap due to stagnant state funding for public transit and political gridlock in Harrisburg.