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 dedicate

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.