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It's a media trope, and I have little reason to doubt it, but it's surprisingly hard to come up with decent statistics on average delays and punctuality for Jap

by morsch 9y ago

It's a media trope, and I have little reason to doubt it, but it's surprisingly hard to come up with decent statistics on average delays and punctuality for Japanese public transport beyond the Shinkansen (average delay < 1 minute). DB (Germany) publishes a monthly average: https://www.bahn.de/p/view/service/auskunft/puenktlichkeit_personenverkehr.shtml https://www.bahn.de/p/view/service/auskunft/puenktlichkeit_p... As does OEBB (Austria): http://www.oebb.at/de/rechtliches/puenktlichkeit-oesterreich http://www.oebb.at/de/rechtliches/puenktlichkeit-oesterreich SNCF (France) has excellent data available: https://ressources.data.sncf.com/explore/dataset/ponctualite-mensuelle-transilien/ https://ressources.data.sncf.com/explore/dataset/ponctualite... The statistics from SBB (Switzerland) are worse than I would have expected: http://sbb-puenktlichkeitskarte.mxm.ch/?lang=1 http://sbb-puenktlichkeitskarte.mxm.ch/?lang=1 Roughly in line with the rest, but as I understand they designed their timetable to make sure that people can make their connection, and they report a figure[1] that does bear that out: https://reporting.sbb.ch/en/quality https://reporting.sbb.ch/en/quality Maybe somebody who speaks Japanese can find something similar for Japanese trains. One thing I did find is the list for delay certificates of the Tokyo Metro. It's obviously not on time, all the time, "passenger arrengement staff"[2] nonwithstanding: http://www.tokyometro.jp/lang_en/delay/history/ginza.html http://www.tokyometro.jp/lang_en/delay/history/ginza.html [1] "Customer-weighted connection punctuality", I do not pretend to understand what exactly that means [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pusher_(railway_station_attendant) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pusher_(railway_station_attend...

mschuster91 9y ago
> Roughly in line with the rest, but as I understand they designed their timetable to make sure that people can make their connection Hmm. Maybe that's something that's missed in the beancounter-ish environment of today's transportation networks... to allow for "slack times". Basically, have the train spend a minute more per station so there is always some inherent amount of time that can be used for stuff like a wheelchair user or a horde of kindergarden kids without impacting everyone else... IIRC something similar was attempted and then rejected at a local bus line, because it would have meant to hire another driver and a bus, and the beancounters said it's too expensive.
- morsch 9y ago
  In the end it all comes down to money and how you use it. For example, the Shinkansen is super punctual, but, as I understand it, it runs entirely on a dedicated network of tracks. Introducing slack in the overall connection means having optimising for the average case at the cost of the ideal case, which is both more difficult to do and, perhaps more importantly, less likely to get exciting articles in the press. Having trains spend additional time at the platform is also expensive in terms of infrastructure and hence, again, money (there are only so many platforms and the tracks leading up the station are probably crowded). I should probably stop rambling; it's not like I really know what I'm talking about.
smoe 9y ago
Be aware, that the SBB in Switzerland measures delays differently than other Countries. They don't look at train departure times, but passenger arrival times. E.g in Germany a train is considered delayed if its more than 5 minutes and 59 seconds late, whereas in Switzerland the percentage refers to passengers that arrive within 3 minutes and still have all the connecting trains available. https://company.sbb.ch/content/news/de/2015/1/1201-1.html https://company.sbb.ch/content/news/de/2015/1/1201-1.html
- kwhitefoot 9y ago
  Sounds like the Swiss way is the right way to do it. And trains or buses that leave early are really annoying. NSB did it with my local bus some years ago. Got the drivers a lot of flack from passengers who missed the bus.
wst_ 9y ago
I can assure you there are delays. Plenty and some of them 1h long. There are communities of commuters that register trains delays on web pages, everyday there's something. Just yesterday half of my office was empty in the morning because of 1h+ outage. True, Shinkansen is really strict, but normal urban lines? Cooome on, pleople, you wouldn't believe they never delay, would you? And if it happens... Oh boy, you don't want to be out there. Usually tracks are blocked so no more trains for the outage duration, and very rarely outage is covered properly by other lines (unless in central Tokyo). Then everyone rush to the bus station, which looks like can of sardines. Generally if you are entering the station in the morning and see ocean of heads flooding the gates (I mean, head next to head, and moving slowly or not moving at all) you can be sure that day will be an adventure. Oh, and don't forget to take outage confirmation paper which station's staff are handing to everyone so you can have excuse for being late at work. :)

by morsch 9y ago

mschuster91 9y ago

> Roughly in line with the rest, but as I understand they designed their timetable to make sure that people can make their connection Hmm. Maybe that's something that's missed in the beancounter-ish environment of today's transportation networks... to allow for "slack times". Basically, have the train spend a minute more per station so there is always some inherent amount of time that can be used for stuff like a wheelchair user or a horde of kindergarden kids without impacting everyone else... IIRC something similar was attempted and then rejected at a local bus line, because it would have meant to hire another driver and a bus, and the beancounters said it's too expensive.

morsch 9y ago
In the end it all comes down to money and how you use it. For example, the Shinkansen is super punctual, but, as I understand it, it runs entirely on a dedicated network of tracks. Introducing slack in the overall connection means having optimising for the average case at the cost of the ideal case, which is both more difficult to do and, perhaps more importantly, less likely to get exciting articles in the press. Having trains spend additional time at the platform is also expensive in terms of infrastructure and hence, again, money (there are only so many platforms and the tracks leading up the station are probably crowded). I should probably stop rambling; it's not like I really know what I'm talking about.

smoe 9y ago

Be aware, that the SBB in Switzerland measures delays differently than other Countries. They don't look at train departure times, but passenger arrival times. E.g in Germany a train is considered delayed if its more than 5 minutes and 59 seconds late, whereas in Switzerland the percentage refers to passengers that arrive within 3 minutes and still have all the connecting trains available. https://company.sbb.ch/content/news/de/2015/1/1201-1.html https://company.sbb.ch/content/news/de/2015/1/1201-1.html

kwhitefoot 9y ago
Sounds like the Swiss way is the right way to do it. And trains or buses that leave early are really annoying. NSB did it with my local bus some years ago. Got the drivers a lot of flack from passengers who missed the bus.

wst_ 9y ago

I can assure you there are delays. Plenty and some of them 1h long. There are communities of commuters that register trains delays on web pages, everyday there's something. Just yesterday half of my office was empty in the morning because of 1h+ outage. True, Shinkansen is really strict, but normal urban lines? Cooome on, pleople, you wouldn't believe they never delay, would you? And if it happens... Oh boy, you don't want to be out there. Usually tracks are blocked so no more trains for the outage duration, and very rarely outage is covered properly by other lines (unless in central Tokyo). Then everyone rush to the bus station, which looks like can of sardines. Generally if you are entering the station in the morning and see ocean of heads flooding the gates (I mean, head next to head, and moving slowly or not moving at all) you can be sure that day will be an adventure. Oh, and don't forget to take outage confirmation paper which station's staff are handing to everyone so you can have excuse for being late at work. :)