http://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/service/ldbboard/arr/MCV
Running a railway to time is remarkably difficult, because a single delay can cascade through the entire network.
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.648...
I live in Midwest USA, and trains and busses here are routinely off schedule. More than say 60% of the time, it will be 5 to 15+ minutes late, and you'll be forced to waste that time just waiting for arrival/transfer. Also, occasionally buses arrive and depart a little bit early, so you can't just arrive on time and be safe either, you have to plan on being at least 10 minutes early to be safe.
If a scheduled departure time is 1:10PM, then a weekly list of actual departure times in the US might often look like : (Monday, 1:15PM, Tuesday, 1:18PM, Wednesday, 1:04PM, Thursday 1:22PM, Friday, 1:11PM, more or less at random). There's no reliable way to plan ahead for that, so realistically you just have to always be 10 minutes early, and expect to wait through to 20+ minutes late, just in case.
This also repeats for every single transfer you might have to make... and most trips require at least one transfer...
Hourly schedule, literally never fits the times presented so you just go and wait. And sometimes you end up waiting 1.5 hours with nothing, so you call up the station to find out wtf and they have no idea where the bus is. "It should be there soon!" -> it finally comes after 2.5 hours.
This happened at least 4 times in the 30 or so attempts I made to use it to get to college. A mere 3 miles away. Then I gave up and just walked or drove. Eventually attended a town hall, and the higher-ups claimed no knowledge of any of this. Last I heard it was still performing at the same level.
I assume they were either skipping our stops to fake a normal round-trip time, or just disappearing for an hour or two to smoke.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42009839
This is not unusual:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44149791
Trains in Japan run very regularly, much more so than in other countries I've visited. Only yesterday I was on a Finnish train and it was delayed by 15 minutes, which lead to some confusion when it did turn up over whether it was the correct train.
Here's a photo showing a driver's timetable. In the second row is a 20 second stop at Hazama, the train arrival time is 13:25:05 and departure 13:25:25.
http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/asianrailroad/imgs/f/a/fa9e3956.j...
Except by accident:
I mean if a train is late by 5-30 minutes, the train is said to be on time.
It seems like there's no leeway in the timetables to make up lost time, and no extra trains parked in the outer suburbs (morning) or CBD (afternoon) to make up services.
Upon saying that, Melbourne's trains are usually pretty good, over 90% on time. It's the buses here that I have issues with. The timetable at the stop is completely useless, and the app is not much better. Sometimes the PTV app says the bus will arrive in 1 minute, and it arrives 5 minutes later.
While true, this is a factoid.
1. Some trains never run. For the commuter this is like a very late train. You need to add the "did not run" numbers to the late trains to get a total effective lateness figure.
2. Some trains run but are so full you cannot get on them. Try catching a train from Prahran to the city at 8am. Nonetheless, this counts as an on time service.
3.On time is defined as anywhere from 1 minute early to 5:59 late. To me six minutes late is not on time.
4. The fraction of late trains is much higher in peak hour, when more people are affected. So the effective late % is higher than it looks at face value.
There are the famous phantom buses, the App says it will arrive and then at the last moment it just disappears.
Also, they have a national radio broadcast that broadcasts time. I think most of their clocks are built to read info from the radio channel and sync to it. So you are usually advised to see the myriad of clocks displayed everywhere.
High speed typically takes single track. One delay causes countless more delays.. domino effect. By using single track, any deficiency is immediately visible. So by moving to the surface any potential for error which could be hidden or diluted, each part of the machine is forced to move at the same rate. This increases system wide efficiency.
Spooky!
And all station attendant have a booklet with all those stuff written, so all he had to do is to take a look at it.
When it comes to government related system in japan they surprisingly works very well with outdated tech
Here's an article that reviews info from a report on rush hour delays in Tokyo for those interested.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2018/01/16/national/japans...
However in Tokyo I took a picture of every station sign I stepped over in order to find my way back :-).
I was ashamed of Germany (where I live) when visiting Japan especially when comparing public transport.
The train stopped at promptly 1:11 PM, and I got off in Matsusaka.