2014-01-23 Meeting with SEPTA.md

2014-01-17 1pm Meeting with SEPTA 9th Floor

• Will
• Mike Zaleski
• John Dezio
• John Holohan

Discussion

• Discussed my data collection and calculation process
• They use ATDS for scheduling data
• Several blind spots for Newark, Thorndale, Trenton lines (Northeast Corridor) shared with Amtrak
• They can improve reporting accuracy in DE (self reporting time cards) by using free station guards to record times
• Scheduling companies: TrainPlan (German), Quintek (Dutch), Oliver Wyman (Princeton, currently used)
• Manual adjustments for construction planning is their main job when scheduling rail

How rail scheduling works

• Effective date is 2013-12-15, 2014-04-06, and 4 times a year
• Minus 6 weeks: distribute to printer
• Minus 8 weeks: draft to engineers for picking (union rule)

Things I can use

• Passenger counts after APC goes live
• Historical schedules from ATDS
• Fiscal calendar
• List of equipment used for each train

Things I can do

• Analyze Amtrak's scheduling data vs. actual results
• Benchmark SEPTA vs. NY, Chicago, ...
• Do they exclude any trains from their OTP reports?
  • Their OTP is broken out by train type, I could do this
• Report of best and worst trains at SEPTA
• Best timing for my reports is 60–90 days after schedule effective date ?!
• Increase verbosity of reports, do exception reporting to show specific issues