In a boardroom on the 10th floor of SEPTA headquarters, Knueppel covered a floor-to-ceiling whiteboard in writing. Real-time info, infrastructure, flying blind: Bulleted points listing the obstacles SEPTA faces, divided into 30 categories.

"Almost anything you can ask about, we have a plan [for] it," the general manager said in May. While he and other managers are quick to acknowledge that problems have intensified in the last few years, they’re pushing hard on many fronts to improve rail service.

SEPTA's on-time rate in 2013 was 93 percent, thanks in part to the arrival of new Silverliner V cars, giving it a full complement of cars for the first time in years.

TOM GRALISH / Staff Photographer An older Silverliner IV on the Manayunk/Norristown Line crosses Indian Queen Lane after leaving the SEPTA East Falls Station headed toward Center City. The line had the fourth-most cancelled trains in 2015.

The advantage was short-lived. The rest of SEPTA's cars are so old — 231 date to the 1970s — that they are prone to breaking down.

Some rail infrastructure, as is common on the East Coast, is 100 years old.

SEPTA bought 13 new locomotives last year, but they won't be available until 2018. A contract for 45 bi-level cars is on hold because of the Silverliner V problems. And fully updating the fleet will cost close to $1 billion, officials say. No contract is in the works for that.

Equipment failures involving vehicles and infrastructure caused 28 percent of all canceled trains from January 2015 to June 2016. Knueppel pointed to the aging fleet.

"Most people would not have something from the 1970s at this point," he said.

Last year, SEPTA took cars out of service to install positive train control, the automatic braking system that could have prevented the deadly Amtrak crash in Philadelphia. SEPTA pulled up to 10 percent of the fleet from service, contributing to 2015’s weak on time performance.

SEPTA operates on six lines owned and used by Amtrak, an arrangement an Amtrak spokesman called, “a carefully choreographed dance,” that is not always beneficial for SEPTA riders.

SEPTA, for its part, calls it flying blind.

Sharing tracks with Amtrak or freight lines is common in metro regions, but poor communication between Amtrak and SEPTA has exacerbated conflicts in areas where track bottlenecks occur. In New York City, by contrast, Amtrak and Long Island Rail Road dispatchers sit in the same room to control trains coming in and out of Penn Station.

Where they share tracks, SEPTA is at Amtrak's mercy. Amtrak controls dispatch on the tracks it owns and SEPTA loses the ability to observe its trains on those stretches — something transit authorities consider essential.

Delays due to conflicts with other rail services, primarily Amtrak, jumped by about two thirds from 2014 to 2015. In part, that was a cascade effect from the increase in other delays: SEPTA vehicles assume spots between Amtrak's; if a SEPTA train misses that window because of a delay, it might have to stop for an Amtrak train.

Who’s on board? Head Conductor: The person in charge of the train. The conductor gives assignments to the assistant conductors, oversees the train’s equipment is operating correctly, manages passengers. Assistant Conductors: They help with the head conductor’s tasks. That includes fare collection, overseeing boarding and disembarking, and managing passengers. per train 1 HEAD CONDUCTOR 2 ASSISTANT CONDUCTORS 1 ENGINEER Engineer: The person driving the train. Engineers are expected to memorize the quirks and particularities of their routes and how to navigate them, along with the myriad regulations that govern each stretch of track. 192 ENGINEERS TOTAL • 213 DESIRED • Systemwide

On May 22, a SEPTA train broke down near Devon Station, the victim of snarled wires. What followed illustrated one of the agency's most vexing problems: a lack of staff.

SEPTA is short on engineers, so no one was free to retrieve the stranded train. Its engineer had to trek back to the maintenance yard himself to get a diesel car to pull his train off the tracks. The ordeal took 3 ½ hours.

Manpower delays constitute a leading cause of canceled trains. The authority is short nearly two dozen engineers due to retirements.

MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff Photographer Not fun and games: Stephanie Dever waits for the southbound Broad Street line to take her to AT&T station to get her car in a stadium parking lot so she can drive home to Morton instead of taking Regional Rail.

The staffing shortage was exacerbated by a contract stipulation that engineers could not train new hires. That forced SEPTA to promote engineers to training managers, robbing trains of skilled operators. This spring, the rule was changed, freeing up the training process.

Stephanie Dever usually rides the Media/Elwyn Line from Morton to Suburban Station. She recalled her evening commute being delayed one evening because SEPTA didn't have an engineer for the train.

"I was, like, 'I'll drive it,'" she remembered thinking.

“The line is more reliably late than it is on time. Usually it is in the 3 to 4 minute range, but it happens so frequently it makes me wonder why they just don’t change the train schedules.” “I’ve been riding the Warminster Line for over 20 years and have lost count of how many family events, important meetings, etc., I’ve either missed or been late for because of transit issues.” “The trains arriving at Suburban Station to Chestnut Hill East are consistently late or have not enough cars” “The Regional Rail line is not always late, or even late most of the time, but… it is late often enough for me to get the train a good two hours before my classes.” “I am an aggravated, irritated, and simply fed-up Regional Rail rider.” “On an almost weekly basis, the normal four-railcar train is inexplicably reduced to two cars. This leads to cramming the normal amount of riders into half the normal seats, if the conductor(s) let you on the train at all.” “The announcements from that so-called PA system are laughable, you can never hear it, or even understand it, making you miss the train.” “I love the Regional Rail. Whether you ride it or not, it is a tremendous asset for the entire metropolitan area” “I keep a stack of Service Guarantee Claim Forms in my briefcase. One of the questions on the form is ‘Were you adequately informed of the reason for the delay?’ to which I usually answer ‘No.’” Adam Lang, 38, Paoli/Thorndale Line Jim Austin, Warminster Line Ed Harris, Chestnut Hill East Line James Lafferty, 25, Wilmington/Newark Line Kiana Abraham, Chestnut Hill East Line Bill Fox, 58, Fox Chase Line Tim Perry, Airport Line Andrew Kefer, 24, Paoli/Thorndale Chuck Argue, Media/Elwyn Line

Some dispatchers retired, as well. Turnover has left newer, less experienced people to manage up to 788 trains a day. The conductors' union contends that trains consistently run without enough conductors on board, though SEPTA says the numbers are sufficient. Low staffing, scheduling headaches, and even mistakes from newer employees can cause delays.

Meanwhile, SEPTA observers had harsh critiques for conductors. Riders complained of unhelpful or uninformed employees. Vuchic, the Penn professor, said conductors lack urgency.

"There is no really awareness that every minute counts." he said.