SEPTA on time?

Just wondering, has anyone else noticed that SEPTA seems to have gotten a little better about being on-time lately? My train (both morning and afternoon) has arrived exactly on time on several occassions in the last few weeks, which i only recall happening once or twice last year.

Yes, there has been real progress since DVARP made a issue of SEPTA's poor on-time performance in the media and with the Board, and SEPTA set up a task force to address these issues. April OTP was 92.5%, which is the best they've done in at least two years.

The average has been just short of 90% for the calendar year to date, and if they can string about three more months like that together, they'll be over 90% in their moving 12-month average, at which point I'd say the on-time problem is no longer a crisis. FY 2003 OTP was 84.5% and FY 2004 was 87.1%.

Thanks to UP (which is making a mess of ACE in California) SEPTA no longer has the worst OTP in the nation, but they're still a way from even their own mediocre goal of 91%, and even farther from the performance of their peers like Metra, NJT, and even the LIRR, which has made great strides the last few years. When we looked at the top ten commuter railroads in the US, the worst of them (MBTA) was 92%, and the average was 94%. (Metro-North and Metra set the standard at 97%).

Seems like NJT does it by padding the schedule. Some runs from/to Metuchen are scheduled at almost an hour - rediculous considering its only 25 miles!!!!