Metro riders will hardly be surprised to learn what a new report has found: Trains are running late more often.
The transit agency’s report shows that Metro failed to meet any of its performance goals for any of its services — including trains, buses, MetroAccess, escalators and elevators — for the first half of the current fiscal year.
Trains were on time 89 percent from July through December, shy of the agency’s 95 percent goal and lower than the 93.3 percent earned during the same period the year before.
Trains have what Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein called a “grace period,” which she said for peak-service trains can be two to four minutes late but still count as “on time.” Delays at other times can be longer.
The Red Line has shown the biggest drop in performance. During the last fiscal year, the report said, the subway line that connects Montgomery County with the District had the best on-time performance, with trains coming in as promised 94.6 percent of the time. This year, it is the worst, with 87 percent arriving on schedule.
Regular train riders have been complaining about Red Line service since the June 22 crash that fouled up the line the rest of the summer.
Metro officials said Thursday the performance numbers include all the times that trains ran at 35 mph for safety reasons after the crash. But even in December, the on-time performance was 89 percent.
The Blue Line, meanwhile, dropped to as low as 86 percent in December, the report said.
Metro officials said Thursday some of the slowdowns have come from running trains in manual mode since the crash. But Dave Kubicek, Metro’s acting deputy general manager for operations, said it was not yet safe to return to automatic train operations, even though those rides are less jerky and more efficient.
He also said placing the 1000 series rail cars, which federal investigators have called uncrashworthy, in the middle of trains has slowed down service.
Meanwhile, ridership has suffered, placing the agency in financial straits by bringing in less revenue. The agency will begin charging 10-cent fare surcharges Feb. 28 through the end of June to cover a $40 million budget shortfall.
Metrobus continued to fare the worst — even before the snowstorms left icy roads for the buses to navigate. Fewer than three out of every four buses were on time in December, the report said, even though “on time” means buses can be up to two minutes early or seven minutes late.
