I hope that Metron is just having some teething problems, because the enroute and arrivals guys are hating it at the moment.
I think Bloggs is onto something as well regarding decel rates. Everyone's playing by different rules when we say "adjust speed to...". It doesn't help with a million different a/c types in the mix either.
As an example, we see the scenario every day where the 146 comes in, meeting his/her time and the groundspeed is almost a constant in the cruise as it is in descent. Qfa and Voz come hurtling in as number 2, at a higher altitude and overtake the 146, relying on dropping the anchors on descent. Problem is, they cant get down cos they're now overtaking and need vectors to get back behind/continue descent.
"But we're meeting our time". Not if I can't get you down, you're not. Maybe we need to get more proactive and make you go down earlier, but then that throws out all of your profiles, especially without notice. I'm not blaming the pilots at all, you're doing exactly as you were told. Most of the time, anyway
