Metro reports Back2Good program has led to best railcar performance in 8 years

WASHINGTON - Metro has released its latest numbers on its Back2Good program and the transit agency is reporting it has had its best railcar performance in 8 years and the lowest level of serious crime in more than a decade.

The Back2Good campaign launched in Nov. 2016 as the agency aimed to make Metro more reliable and accountable to its customers. Metro spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to promote the initiative.

Now, Metro said customer confidence that Metro is "getting better" has reached its highest level in two years.

Serious crime on Metrorail and Metrobus is down 19 percent from last year, according to Metro.

Since the start of their new Rush Hour Promise this year where SmarTrip users can be reimbursed if their rush hour commute is more than 15 minutes late, Metro said 90 percent of all rush hour trips on Metrorail have arrived on time.

However, Metro is still recovering and trying to gain back trust from riders after a decade of problems, a lengthy span of SafeTrack maintenance repairs and mishaps as recently as last month when a Red Line train derailed near the White House.

Some Metro riders said they are still waiting for results.

"They are probably patting themselves on the back for a good job that they only can see," said Orlanzo Chappell. "But other than that, I see more delays, more problems, especially on the Red Line.

"I realize it has issues and it can be frustrating when there is like 20 minutes to wait, which can be very frustrating, but at least it is coming versus nothing," said Susanna Philbrick. "I definitely think they are keeping it realistic with Back2Good, but I hope they get it going better."

"When you put in new regiments so to speak, you got to work the kinks out of it," said Malvia Jackson. "So they deserve a little bit of time to try and finish what they started."

Metro has also made other improvements to the transit system. A total of 36 underground stations now have WiFi and the remaining underground stations are expected to have WiFi later this year.