When is a late train really late...?

[caravanman]

Those damn statistics again!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32579674

Ed

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I have no complaints with being ten minutes off. Amtrak would kill for times like that. Especially to intermediate stations where everything gets swept under the rug thanks to absurd levels of padding at the very end. United Airlines struggles (and just as often fails) to get me to my destination on the same day as originally scheduled, let alone the same hour or minute. Thanks to massive consolidation among both owners and operators here in the US I would not expect our schedules to improve substantially in my lifetime.

 

[crabby_appleton1950]

"... recording trains that arrive more than one minute later than scheduled..."

I'm thinking that must be for commuter trains like the NYC subway or Boston "T".

 

[jebr]

I have no complaints with being ten minutes off. Amtrak would kill for times like that. Especially to intermediate stations where everything gets swept under the rug thanks to absurd levels of padding at the very end.

Ugh, yes. My local station (SCD) is a prime example of that. I'm not sure the eastbound train has ever been there on time, even before the delays started on the Builder. However, sometimes that time is made up with almost an hour of padding to the next station (MSP.) I wish they would just bump the time ahead a few minutes (maybe 5:30 instead of 5:15) to get slightly closer to reality (and so I safely set my alarm 15 minutes later without waking up at 3:15 AM to see what time the train will actually arrive.)