The British Office of Passenger Rail Franchising has made a table
comparing the performance of 25 train operating companies. Island Line
got a nice A for punctuality and reliability, seven companies got a B,
ten got a C, six got a D and Silverlink Trains was the only company to
get an embarassing E. Goverment officials deplored the poor
performance, and even the Association of Train Operating Companies
said that "Punctuality is proving a hard nut to crack in the face of
unprecedented growth."
Muni level performance wouldn't even appear in the same alphabet.
See http://news.bbc.co.uk:80/hi/english/uk/newsid_277000/277278.stm
(And before neoliberal freaks go off the deep end about how _good_
these figures are, remember that British Rail was systematically and
deliberately run down by the Conservative government in the run-up to
break-up and privatization. Still, comparatively better days may very
well be in store.)