Metra To Quit Practices That Artificially Inflate On-Time Figures
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. (CBS) -- Metra is changing how it reports late trains, so commuters will have more accurate information about which trains are chronically delayed.
As CBS 2's Kris Habermehl reports, commuters have been frustrated by the current policy, in which trains running at non-peak hours that got stuck in construction zones for 5 to 10 minutes were not considered late.
This was because "construction allowances" were factored into calculations for on-time arrivals, the Chicago Tribune explained.
New guidelines will do away with construction allowances.
Also, Metra will no longer automatically count extra trains for special events as always being on time no matter when they arrived, as has been the case previously, the Tribune reported.
The practices artificially inflated the on-time performance record for Metra, which the transit agency touts as being 95 percent or better, the Tribune said. With the policy change, the figure for May would drop from 96 to 94.8 percent, with chronic tardiness on some lines, the newspaper reported.
