Metro’s rush-hour trains ran on schedule more than 90 percent of the time in January, the first time the agency’s on-time performance has reached that mark since December 2006, records show.
Metro staff came under fire from the board of directors in January after end-of-the-year service reports showed the agency’s 2007 on-time rush-hour performance dipped as low as 83 percent some months.
Metro fell well below its goal of 95 percent on-time service last year, failing to break the 90 percent mark even once.
General Manager John Catoe attributed the slide to mechanical failures in Metro’s aging fleet of railcars and to the increased occurrence of track fires, which are often linked to trash accumulation.
“I do believe we can get this up past 90 percent,” Catoe told board members in early January, after they demanded to see monthly service reports with data broken down by rail line this year.
The first of those monthly reports shows the agency’s evening rush-hour service reached the 90 percent on-time mark in January, and its morning rush-hour service reached 91 percent.
Orange Line riders enjoyed the best overall service in January, with 94 percent of all trains on that line arriving on time.
Yellow and Red line trains ran on schedule 93 percent of the time, and Blue and Green line trains arrived on time 91 percent of the time.
Metro officials were not available to comment on the improved performance numbers Sunday.
But Catoe said last week that the agency has not experienced any rail fires — a common source of service disruptions — in several months.
By comparison, the agency reported 75 instances of smoke or fire from July to November.
Metro staff began manually collecting trash along the tracks at the end of last year, and the agency last month began testing debris-collector cages at some stations with the aim of installing them along the entire rail line if they prove successful.
