SEPTA Regional Rail On-Time Performance

October on-time performance was 88.6%, well below the 92% target that NJ Transit uses. October and November are typically difficult on on-time performance due to the effect of fallen leaves on rails, which makes them slippery. The lack of sanding gel being applied to the rails this year also contributed to the poor OTP. (The sanding gel was finally applied on October 30.) Four out of the 5 days with OTP below 85% were blamed on slippery rails.

The trailing-twelve-month rolling average was 88.8%, trending slightly upwards towards the 90% OTP that SEPTA had been averaging in fiscal year 2005 (the year ending June 30, 2005). The transit strike in November 2005 resulted in increased ridership but also a large drop in on-time performance because of the Regional Rail system's inability to cope with increased ridership. Similar problems have occurred during previous transit strikes and during major events such as "Live 8" last year. The July 2006 on-time performance suffered for two days after a head-on collision on the R2 Warminster line south of Willow Grove.

	October 2006	Average (TTM)	Chart
Regional Rail System	88.6%	88.8%
R1 Glenside	93.6%	93.0%
R1 Airport	91.9%	91.6%
R2 Warminster	92.6%	88.9%
R2 Marcus Hook-Wilmington	88.0%	88.4%
R3 West Trenton	82.6%	88.5%
R3 Media-Elwyn	87.6%	90.9%
R5 Lansdale-Doylestown	81.3%	83.1%
R5 Paoli-Thorndale	85.2%	86.2%
R6 Norristown	91.3%	90.6%
R6 Cynwyd	93.6%	91.5%
R7 Chestnut Hill East	94.0%	92.6%
R7 Trenton	89.9%	88.9%
R8 Fox Chase	92.6%	92.1%
R8 Chestnut Hill West	87.7%	84.4%