Late last year Muni got farther from its goal of reaching 85 percent on-time performance.
On-time performance dropped from 72.5 percent to 72 percent from July through September last year, in Muni’s latest report.
Although the drop was only half a percent, Cameron Beach, director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which operates Muni, pointed out that the drop was significant. Last year the agency announced that it had reached an all-time high of 75 percent.
Beach also pointed out that the first-quarter on-time numbers occurred at a time when service was lower due to a 10 percent service cut last May.
“If anything, things should have gotten better, not worse,” Beach said.
John Haley, director of transit operations, said the reason for the declined numbers was lower vehicle reliability and speed of vehicles on the streets.
“The fact is that we’re slow,” Haley said. “While the statistics don’t show it, the majority of our service that is not on time is late rather than early. Part of that has to do with the environment that we operate in — both on the rail and bus side.”
Haley added that he and other Muni staff have been looking into proposals, such as route consolidation, and looking at operating rules on both light-rail vehicles and buses.
“If we are able to continue to follow through, to improve on the reliability of our fleet, and put into place the measures we’ve talked about to the reduce travel on-time on the system, then we will make a positive impact on the on-time performance,” Haley said.
Best and Worst Performing Lines (First Quarter of 2010-2011 Fiscal Year)
Best: 56-Rutland (94.1 percent), 14X-Mission Express (89.5 percent), 1-California (83.5 percent), 14 Limited-Mission (81.7 percent) and 30-Stockton (81.3 percent).
Worst: 10-Townsend (61.4 percent), 12-Folsom (60.4 percent), 31BX-Balboa Express (58.8 percent), 91-Owl (55.6 percent), 31AX-Balboa Express (47.4 percent).
