Best Commuter Rail Company In The US

[MNCRR9000]

I was wondering who people think has the best commuter railroad operation in the US in terms of on-time percentage, and infrastructure quality, and customer service.

[electricron]

They may be amongst the smallest commuter rail agencies in the country, but the information provided monthly and quarterly on the board's agenda packet is full of information, and in my opinion the best.
Here's the latest example:
https://www.dcta.net/images/uploads/content_files/board_docs/07_23_2015_Board_Packet.pdf
Note: Not only do they give % in meeting various goals, they actually give the data in numbers. For example, 7 delayed trains in total for the month of June caused by temporary signals malfunction on two specific days.

[Literalman]

I haven't ridden them all, so I can't say which is the best in the country, but I commute on VRE, and in the past I've commuted on the MBTA, and I've ridden NJ Transit and Septa hundreds of times. All of these have serious problems, but I'd say that NJ Transit gives the best service and value for the price.

[bdawe]

Caltrain has actual plans to purchase modern passenger rail equipment, and has been proactive in making the empirical case to the FRA that these are safer than FRA-compliant hulks.

[mtuandrew]

I haven't ridden them all, so I can't say which is the best in the country, but I commute on VRE, and in the past I've commuted on the MBTA, and I've ridden NJ Transit and Septa hundreds of times. All of these have serious problems, but I'd say that NJ Transit gives the best service and value for the price.

I personally agree with you about NJT. Of all the majors, they have the best station facilities I've used, the best/newest equipment, and the fastest speeds.

Of the minor leagues, I do like my hometown Metro Transit Northstar commuter rail. There's hardly anything to it, but they have nice stations and decent Bombardier cars, and BNSF operates the service nice and smartly. EDIT: their in-house light rail service is excellent too. Bus service... well, you can't have everything.

[electricron]

Caltrain has actual plans to purchase modern passenger rail equipment, and has been proactive in making the empirical case to the FRA that these are safer than FRA-compliant hulks.

While what you stated is truthful, DCTA has been the first to successfully get alternate FRA compliant trains certified by the FRA (Stadler built GTWs), FWTA will follow soon (Stadler built FLIRTs), and CapMetro is ordering 4 additional GTWs that will be alternate compliant to join their 6 GTWs that aren't.
While Caltrains has been pushing the FRA to revise standards, Texas rail agencies and Stadler have been leading the way and getting this job done.

[CarterB]

NJT hands down. New or 'in good repair' equipment, frequent run times, decent weekend/holiday schedules. All in all
good performance and service.

[Frode]

Certainly not the MBTA, especially after last winter!