Tracking Progress
In order to track our progress moving forward, we have established a new set of organization-wide key performance indicators (KPIs) that are aligned with the goals and strategic priorities established in the Strategic Plan. SEPTA’s ability to quickly identify and react to trends, problems, and changing rider needs will be critical for our success. These KPIs include a mix of leading indicators, which will help SEPTA anticipate upcoming trends, and lagging indicators, to assess our performance and ensure the actions we are taking are helping achieve our desired outcomes.
The new Ridership Dashboard provides mode-level and route-level ridership by month, tracking back to 2019. This information helps us adjust service levels to ensure that we are adapting to the changing needs of our region. Check this page in February for additional KPI updates!
Ridership Dashboard
Develop a Proactive Organization
As we build towards our goal of developing a proactive organization, we will track our progress with several key performance indicators.
Employee Lost-Time Due to Injuries Per 200,000 Work Hours
Safety is paramount in everything that we do. As we continue to be a proactive organization, we need to continue putting safety first.
Operating Expense Per Passenger Trip
Tracking overall operating expenses indexed to passenger trips provides insights into the efficiency of our efforts to provide service.
Passengers Per Revenue Vehicle Hour
The overall usage of our service compared to the amount of service we provide broadly indicates how effectively we are meeting the changing needs of our region.
Employee Engagement
Our people are essential to the success of our region–making sure that they are engaged in the work they do helps us to be the best SEPTA possible.
Pounds of CO2 Per Passenger Mile Traveled
While transit is inherently sustainable, tracking our own carbon footprint ensures that we are acting as good stewards of our resources.
Economic Impact
As SEPTA continues to drive the economy of Southeastern Pennsylvania, tracking the economic impact of our investments ensures that we continue to provide value.
Percent of Projects on Schedule
Delivering projects on-time is an important part of ensuring that our systems meet the changing needs of our region and keep cost in line with budget.
Percent of Construction (Capital) Dollars Spent on Soft Costs
Tracking soft costs (costs spent on administrative or professional services) as a percentage of overall project costs within the capital program ensures that spending is in line with industry standards to maximize the impact of the capital budget.
Provide an Intuitive Experience
As we build towards our goal of providing an intuitive experience, we will track our progress with several key performance indicators.
Customer Experience Score
The Customer Experience Score measures how positive our customers’ interactions with SEPTA are throughout their journeys, from planning their trip to arriving at their destinations. Tracking feedback from every stage of a trip can help us understand which parts of the experience are satisfying and which may need improvement.
Customer Effort Score
If transit is difficult to use, our customers will turn to other options. Measuring the ease with which customers can find information and use the system can help us make their travels as smooth as possible–and ensure they choose SEPTA every time.
Customer Engagement Score
To better understand how our customers are interacting with us outside of their travels, we can track how people use our website, app, customer service centers, and other points of contact. This will help us provide the best tools to help our customers get around.
Customer Attitude Score
Listening to how customers feel about SEPTA as a brand can help us understand where we excel and where we can improve. Analyzing social media posts to and about us can let us respond to what our customers are thinking and feeling in real-time.
Rider Delay Minutes and Buffer Time
Delays to service–both at the start of a journey and the duration of their trip–can affect how willing people are to use transit. Tracking the additional time riders spend on their journey and how much extra time they allot to be sure to arrive on time can help us understand how reliable our services are. Many factors that affect this are outside of our direct control. We will coordinate closely with our partners at Amtrak and local communities across the region.
Additional Time To Make Accessible Journeys
If transit is not fully accessible, some riders may need to take longer trips in order to get to a destination. Measuring the impacts our infrastructure has on the way people make trips will help us prioritize projects based on the impact they have for riders. It also helps us more fully understand funding needs for vehicles and stations.
Daily Trips Through Stations Without Accessible Options
While we upgrade stations to improve access, we will continually analyze and evaluate ridership patterns to inform decisions. By measuring the number of trips that go through stations without accessible options, we can prioritize investments that can have the greatest benefit.
Contactless Trips
For our services to be easy-to-use and attractive to riders, paying for a trip should be seamless and require little more than a simple tap of a card or smartphone. Measuring the percentage of trips that use “contactless” payment methods can help us understand how easy this point of the journey is for riders.
Deliver a Seamless Transit Network
As we build towards our goal of delivering a seamless transit network, we will track our progress with several key performance indicators.
Unlinked Trips Per Capita
The total number of trips on transit compared to the total population of the region is an industry standard measure to determine what percentage of the region is using transit.
Average Vehicle Age by Mode
As vehicles age, they require more maintenance to provide a safe and reliable trip. This can contribute to increased costs of providing service. Tracking the average age of our fleets can help us monitor and project fleet replacement needs and proactively plan for maintenance needs.
Population Near Transit
For transit to be seamlessly integrated into people’s daily lives, it needs to serve where people live. We’ll track the amount of people that live within walking distance of frequent transit to ensure we are serving the region.
Equitable Service
Transit is an essential service that preserves access to opportunity in a growing region. We will use various sources, including census and survey data, to ensure that we are providing equitable service across the region with a particular focus on historically underserved communities. We’ll work with our regional partners to develop new measures to effectively track our efforts.
Destinations Near Transit
Our services need to be where people want to go in order to be useful; tracking connections to transit for various destinations across the region to give us insights as we work to meet changing needs.
Transit Travel Time Competitiveness
Riders have an increasing number of choices to get around; a seamless transit network must provide a competitive travel time compared to vehicular travel, particularly in critical transportation corridors such as Chestnut Street or I-95.
On-Time Performance and Headway Adherence
Transit must work effectively and consistently in order to meet the needs of our region. For our riders to arrive on time, we must be on time.
Average Transfer Wait Time
Transfers connect our network together; shorter transfer wait times help riders use the entire network. The way we design and schedule services can support this.
