Regional Transit Performance Measures at Chicago's Regional Transportation Authority

Transit authorities have generally been slow to embrace performance measures, but acceptance is growing of the need to track performance in an effort to deliver more efficient and effective service, as well as demonstrate a higher level of transparency. In 2009, Chicago’s Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) officially implemented a set of regional performance measures for the Chicago Transit Authority, commuter railroad Metra, and suburban bus and regional paratransit provider Pace. Using the National Transit Database wherever possible, various operating and financial measures are being monitored for Chicago’s three transit operators taken together, and for Chicago’s regional transit system compared to systems in nine peer metropolitan areas. Results for some of the more important indicators are being posted on the RTA’s web site. The process of monitoring performance measures is an ongoing, evolving, multi-year effort to implement an overall performance management system. The RTA’s desire to measure, monitor and improve performance as part of its oversight responsibility and as part of the requirements of a legislative mandate for greater transparency must be balanced with the individual operating agencies’ concerns regarding the representation and interpretation of performance data.