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On time?

or: Everything you (n)ever wanted to know about punctuality

If a company publishes on-time statistics, there is a lot of reason for a second look: Almost every railroad on the planet has its own definition of "on time". Sometimes, there are even two punctuality records for one railroad: The Swiss SBB-CFF-FFS, uses two scales, in order to measure both minor and major delays, and publishes both figures.

The following table shows, wether certain delays are called "on time" or "delayed" by the various punctuality definitions.

Arrival late by minutes:seconds  01:00   01:01   04:00   04:01   04:59   05:00   14:59   15:00 
SBB-CFF-FSS (Switzerland), Def. 1 on time delayed delayed delayed delayed delayed delayed delayed
SBB-CFF-FSS (Switzerland), Def. 2 on time on time on time delayed delayed delayed delayed delayed
Deutsche Bahn AG (Germany) on time on time on time on time on time delayed delayed delayed
Amtrak (USA) on time on time on time on time on time on time on time delayed
Eurostar (EU) on time on time on time on time on time on time on time delayed
Common air carrier definition on time on time on time on time on time on time on time delayed

Another important difference: While most passenger railroads attempt to be on time at every station, Amtrak doesn't even try, and puts most of the schedule padding close to the end of the journey. This practice reduces usability by a major margin.



about this document            Hans-Joachim Zierke            © notice            Thank you


Last modified: 2007-09-21