Community of Metros Research – Page 2 – Community of Metros Benchmarking Group

Research: Data Governance

August 29, 2023July 31, 2023

Transforming the large volumes of raw data that metro operators collect into actionable intelligence is a challenging task, yet critical to enhance operations, improve customer service, and develop effective future strategies. To overcome these challenges, good data governance is needed to support data management, enable informed decision-making, and ultimately improve overall performance.

Data governance mainly focuses on data-driven decision making and provides a framework for managing data throughout its lifecycle, ensuring its quality, security, privacy, and effective utilisation. It aims to assist organisations in deriving maximum value from their data assets while minimising risks and complying with legal and regulatory requirements.

The study details three main aspects of data governance (organisation, technical, and business) and presents a data governance roadmap along with metros’ best practices.

Research: Combatting Crime and Disorder on Metro Networks

August 29, 2023June 30, 2023

Managing security – and perception of security – is a growing challenge for many metro operators. In North America and Europe where crime and disorder is a significant concern for metros, perception of security in public spaces has been influenced by wider quality-of-life issues that pre-dated COVID-19 related to homelessness, drug and alcohol use and mental health. The pandemic also raised new challenges of staff unavailability and lower ridership which reduced the presence of ‘active bystanders’ on metro networks.

As such, the study aims to understand changes in crime and anti-social behaviour since the pandemic began, and to share initiatives implemented by metros to reduce incident rates and to improve customer perceptions of personal safety. This report contains data compiled from twenty-seven COMET members, including an in-depth interview with the Deputy Chief of Police at San Francisco BART. It reviews factors impacting crime in metros, key barriers to improving security, incident rates during pandemic, as well as opportunities and actions to combat crime and disorder.

Research: Sustainability and Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Metros

August 29, 2023April 28, 2023

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is an approach to sustainability that reflects social responsibility and care of employees in addition to environmental impacts. It is a concept that is influencing companies around the world, who are motivated by climate change and changing societal expectations.

The first and foremost motivation for studying ESG across COMET members is the intensifying climate change crisis. As transport is a major contributor to carbon emissions, there are discussions on how to decarbonise all forms of transport. From the societal perspective, there are shifting attitudes and expectations about inclusivity, transparency, and transport as a social good, to which the information age has brought greater awareness.

The study are compiles metros’ ESG policies and strategies and explores the measurement and monitoring tools used by member metros as well as the challenges and lessons learned from implementation. It reviews policies, initiatives, and data in selected areas of focus such as energy, environment, diversity, and public engagement.

Community of Metros News: COMET 2023 Western Meeting in San Francisco, 19-21 April

August 29, 2023April 26, 2023

COMET fully resumed in-person meetings in 2023, with the first successful meeting held by San Francisco BART in April. It brought together 22 metros discussing topics of fare evasion, recruitment and retention, crime and disorder, and energy efficiency.

The delegates visited BART Powell Street station and Hayward Maintenance Yard. The technical visits also included a tour of fare gate prototypes installed at the Rockridge station and a visit to San Francisco Central Subway.

During the meeting sessions, metros shared the latest development of their own systems, and heard detailed information from the metro spotlight presentations, including San Francisco BART’s presentation on the new rolling stock project, and Berlin BVG’s presentation on their measures of combating crime and disorder.

Research: Digital Transformation of Rolling Stock Maintenance

February 17, 2023January 20, 2023

Digital transformation of rolling stock maintenance includes using remote condition monitoring to collect real-time train information as well as using digital tools for rolling stock maintenance. Through digital transformation, metros expect to improve fleet availability, asset reliability, and maintenance efficiency.

This study brought together information from 30 metros, exploring the current condition of rolling stock maintenance and metros’ plans associated with digital transformation. Metros’ current and planned projects for digital transformation of rolling stock maintenance were summarised across five key areas: monitoring, maintenance depot systems, organisational structure, data management, and data security & performance monitoring.

To support metros along the digital transformation progress, the study also provided recommendations on the future road map for digital transformation of rolling stock maintenance. It laid out the key principles during different stages of digital transformation including planning, developing, testing, and implementing stages.

Research: Customer Assistance in Low Staff Environment

February 17, 2023December 22, 2022

In recent years, the use of self-assistance tools in stations has accelerated – driven by technological development, staff shortages, and reduced face-to-face contact during COVID-19. Considering emerging financial challenges, many metros are now reviewing station staffing models with the aim of improving operational efficiency while maintaining a good customer experience. Changing customer behaviours and staff shortages are key drivers of staff reductions, but there are also other drivers affecting station staffing models such as external policies and levels of crime.

Factors Affecting Station Staffing Models

This study included responses from 31 metros reviewing factors impacting staffing level decisions, customer service challenges in low staff stations, station staffing models, and opportunities to reduce staff. Examples of innovations to reduce staffing requirements across key areas of station staff responsibilities e.g. ticketing and customer information, were also presented, along with best practices carried out by metros and the most impactful tools used by both customers and staff in low staff stations.

Research: Staff Retirement Trends

February 17, 2023December 2, 2022

Managing an ageing workforce is a challenge for many metro operators, with some reporting large waves of retirement where significant numbers of highly qualified and experienced staff are lost. The impact of this on metro operations has been compounded by staff shortages more generally related to recruitment and retention challenges since COVID-19 began. The study included information from 27 metros with regard to their growing staffing concerns and best practices for managing staff retirement.

Metros reported the impacts of retirement, retention and recruitment on staff shortages pre COVID-19, now and in the future. By 2022, almost half (48%) of metros perceived recruitment to be an issue, while retirement was considered a major or minor issue in a quarter of metros (26%) and retention had become an important issue in a third of metros (35%).

A number of measures have been taken by metros to respond to short-term staff shortages, and in the longer term to help retain institutional knowledge. The study identified good practices and actions for mitigating impacts of staff shortages and addressing longer term skills gaps.

Research: Flood Management in Metros

February 17, 2023October 28, 2022

Flood management is an increasingly emerging issue for metros associated with climate change and extreme weather. Most metros are expecting more frequent flooding events of greater severity in the future, and are thus interested in learning from each other on flood prevention and management. This study gathered information from 31 metros and looked into influential factors to flooding, velnerability assessment, and flood prevention and management initiatives.

Managing a flood is similar to incident management more widely. An operational response process starts an alert, an incident is declared, the situation is managed / water is contained, and operations are managed to prioritise safety, maintain service levels where possible, and keep customers informed.

Based on metros’ previous experiences with flooding, the study presented the key lessons learned by metros and their improvements for flood preparation and management. These cover the areas of infrastructure design, operational response, as well as maintenance and inspections.

Research: Fare Evasion

August 31, 2022

Fare evasion is a highly complex and multfaceted issue faced by metros. Benchmarking of fare evasion rates is included in the annual COMET Key Performance Indicators work, but this is the first time the topic has been studied specifically since 2004. This study looked at fare evasion rates, causes and initiatives across 31 metros.

Summary of high level factors contributing to fare evasion at metros

The study is structured around three key aspects that are directly considered by a passenger when deciding to evade fare payment: how easy it is to breach the system, what the consequences are for getting caught, and the likelihood of getting caught. Increasingly since this topic was last studied, fare evasion is being more widely discussed in the context of social equity and proportionality, where it is seen as symptomatic of wider societal issues that need addressing rather than criminalising the evader themselves.

Research: Sustainable Fares and Funding

July 28, 2022July 22, 2022

Ensuring that metro fare and funding structures are sustainable is vital to cover both short-term operating costs and to continue investment in the metro to maintain service quality for the longer term. The study brought together information from 33 metros to explore how metros set and review fares, to compare fare structures, fare levels and fare products across metros, and to understand how COVID-19 has impacted fares and funding arrangements.

Fare revenue is the largest and most important revenue source for metros. The study builds on previous work in COMET on fares and funding by particularly considering the sustainable element of metro revenue generation, considering important current factors such as rising inflation and prices, fare adjustment mechanisms, and concessionary fare offerings.