After making some encouraging steps forward in recent years, Muni wrapped up a disappointing 2011 fiscal year by posting its lowest annual on-time performance since 2008.

Muni posted a 73 percent on-time performance rate for the 2011 fiscal year, which ended on June 30, a regression from last fiscal year, when the agency tallied a 73.5 percent mark -- the highest in its history. The 2011 numbers marked the first time since 2008 — when the agency posted a 70.6 percent mark — that Muni did not improve upon its on-time rate from the prior year.

In 1999, when San Francisco voters opted to expand the purview of The City’s transit agency, Muni was mandated with achieving an 85 percent on-time performance standard. The agency has never come remotely close to that mark, and new executive director Ed Reiskin has hinted that the on-time rate is not a good metric to gauge Muni’s performance.

wreisman@sfexaminer.com