New York MTA records improvement in rail on-time performance

Rail News Home Passenger Rail 1/21/2020 Rail News: Passenger Rail
MTA Long Island Rail Road, Metro-North Railroad and New York City Transit subway logged on-time performance increases in 2019.Photo – Metro-North Railroad

Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) officials yesterday announced that its Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), Metro-North Railroad and New York City Transit (NYCT) subway logged on-time performance increases in 2019. 

Last year, on-time performance on the LIRR rose 2 percentage points to 92.4 percent compared with 2018's level, marking the commuter railroad’s best performance in three years, MTA officials said in a press release.

The LIRR recorded 44 percent fewer train cancellations and terminations, 29 percent fewer trains delayed more than 15 minutes, and 25 percent fewer trains operating “short,” or with less than the normal complement of rail cars. 

Metro-North’s on-time performance last year climbed 4.3 percentage points to 94.4 percent, marking the railroad’s best performance in six years. 

Metro-North recorded 55 percent fewer train cancellations, 41 percent fewer trains delayed more than 15 minutes, and 63 percent fewer trains operating short.

Meanwhile, average weekday on-time performance in 2019 on the NYCT subway surpassed 80 percent, a nearly 20 percent increase over 2018. In December 2019, OTP surpassed 80 percent for the seventh consecutive month.

MTA attributes the on-time performance increases across the rail lines to infrastructure improvements, root cause analysis of train delays, signal upgrades and debris removal.