91–100 of 240 posts
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I agree that it's a dire , expensive mess. But it doesn't seem like low hanging fruit at all... Anything that will improve the situation will be expensive and/or take a long time to achieve.
And "short-term cost, long-term benefit" is kryptonite to the average politician. "We get the blame, the next guy takes the credit"
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> I suppose anything below 30 minutes is consideres "on time". sounds about right for the stereotype. it's the 'murikans that are the ones so uptight about time
I think by and large this doesn’t play out with trains. American trains tend to be much less frequent, slower, and less comfortable than most European trains. I road a swiss train a couple years ago that was something like 5 minutes late. To me (American) it was “on time” but the conductor came on the PA and apologized. He did make a point to clarify the delay was because they’d been stuck behind an off schedule Germ…
That's hilarious.
Ironic read given I'm currently sat on a half hour delayed, hopelessly overcrowded (due to 2 prior cancellations) Avanti west coast service. I'll be happy to claim my delay repay on my employer's dime for the 5th time this year. My only regret is that I booked off-peak
> Avanti West Coast offers customers: > 15 minutes — 25% off > 30 minutes — 50% off > 1 hour + — 100% off To me they look like very generous refund policies. I checked Italy's Trenitalia and what they offer is[1]: > 30-119 minutes: 25% > 120+ minutes: 50% I suppose anything below 30 minutes is consideres "on time". [1] https://www.trenitalia.com/it/informazioni/indennizzo_per_ri...
Deutsche Bahn: 1hr+ --> 25%, 2hr+ --> 50%
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Japan would like to have a word.
Have them talk to the Swiss. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41189834
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Paying train workers what they are demanding is expensive
British train drivers are the best paid in Europe by a staggering amount. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/12/23/train-strikes-the...
Why do people resent train drivers getting paid well?
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I think by and large this doesn’t play out with trains. American trains tend to be much less frequent, slower, and less comfortable than most European trains. I road a swiss train a couple years ago that was something like 5 minutes late. To me (American) it was “on time” but the conductor came on the PA and apologized. He did make a point to clarify the delay was because they’d been stuck behind an off schedule Germ…
It would be so great if the rest of the world could take inspiration from Switzerland and Japan regarding train management. Also perhaps Ukraine. I heard they had stepped up during war time to the point of being more punctual than many other European countries.
What if signal failures "add" 15%? Then all factors combined would mean that there's a 105% chance your train will be delayed!
Adding up probabilities like this doesn't make sense. If you simplify these things as independent events, the probability of delay is just the 1 minus the product of all the probabilities of each event not happening (i.e., 1 - P(event)).
As for the article---I think you really undervalue your time and the price of inconvenience. I can see how you can romanticize it as a nice way to get things done, but (dealing with) train delays is hardly distraction free and is full of forced setting changes and (very) shit working environments (like waiting on a platform). This is a bad deal, even if it's free. Money is there to to be spent; this is a instance in which to spend it, moral/ethical/fraud concerns aside.
But hey maybe you're a Von Neuman type and thrive in cacophony and chaos.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Paying train workers what they are demanding is expensive
British train drivers are the best paid in Europe by a staggering amount. https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/12/23/train-strikes-the...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be so great if the rest of the world could take inspiration from Switzerland and Japan regarding train management. Also perhaps Ukraine. I heard they had stepped up during war time to the point of being more punctual than many other European countries.
Swiss trains are often on time because they are deliberately slow, and so they can speed up a bit if things are delayed. They are sometimes deliberately slow because the Swiss system is designed to have trains arrive and leave interchange stations at the same time to make changing trains easier. Some are also slow because they take routes that wind along mountainsides which are scenic but not particularly direct.
Maybe trains in many/most systems are running faster than they should for optimal performance?