Beleaguered by breakdowns, blown budgets and past fatal blunders, Metro is under pressure to improve its performance. So what does the head of the transit agency do to reassure Congress, the local jurisdictions that fund Metro, and the public that he’s serious about correcting the many problems that continue to plague Metro? General Manager Richard Sarles wants to further fudge performance standards by changing the definition of “on time.” As The Examiner’s Kytja Weir reported last week, Metro already considers trains that are running two minutes late to be “on time” — even though they are obviously not, and in fact contribute to station backups during periods of peak ridership. But delayed passengers must simply accept that if Metro says late trains are really “on time,” it must be so. Metrobuses get even greater leeway, and are considered “on time” even if they are running seven minutes behind their scheduled arrival. While this may be considered “on time” to Metro, riders waiting at bus stops in the snow, rain or blistering summer heat might beg to differ.
Sarles is attempting to define performance standards down without actually improving performance. He claims that such metrics as “on time” are “less meaningful to customers” who, he presumes, only want to know when the next train or bus will arrive, not when it was supposed to arrive. But Sarles is only fooling himself if he thinks that passengers don’t already notice that Metro train and bus schedules are completely unpredictable. They are also acutely aware that delays are but one of many problems Metro has failed to adequately address.
