Abstract:

Topic: Visualizations in Decision Support / Performance Management This session will explore how Metra Commuter Rail strategically introduced an Operations Dashboard based on business intelligence principles to enhance its daily and monthly system performance tracking. Delay monitoring and on-time performance tracking are critical parts of Metra’s daily operations. In tracking these metrics, Metra’s top priority is to understand and immediately fix the specific incidents that led to operational issues. Metra does so by reviewing the previous day’s specific operations across all 11 lines while broadly tracking monthly on-time performance statistics. With so many intricate maneuvers and thousands of passengers depending on the system each day, Metra’s Operations Department prioritizes this vantage point in order to address immediate issues and ensure that trains run smoothly. While this existing system succeeds in determining immediate needs and next steps, Metra sought new analyses that would provide insight to medium-range operational trends in a way that was accessible and convenient. Metra utilized Microsoft’s Power BI to visualize the agency’s abundance of available data to be consumed by varies audiences within the agency. This presentation will, first, provide an overview of the initial visualizations used to encourage utilization and confidence in the new delay review procedures. Second, it will outline the business intelligence tools, such as bench-marking and trend analyses that are being introduced to support more sophisticated operational decision-making. Finally, it will discuss next steps and suggestions for other agencies looking to adopt a visualization-based operations monitoring system.