8 ms·

To be honest, a train leaving early SUCKS. You show up on time, and you find out you missed it. Maybe the next one is in 40 minutes, maybe it's the next day. (

To be honest, a train leaving early SUCKS. You show up on time, and you find out you missed it. Maybe the next one is in 40 minutes, maybe it's the next day. (I realize 20 seconds early isn't that bad, but still, leaving early by any amount of time is a lot worse than leaving late)

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
apengwin 6y ago
I think this is why trains and airplanes tend to be delayed so much. It is much better to be late than to leave early. A train that's late will usually still eventually arrive.
- johnwalkr 6y ago
  At Tokyo Narita airport, it is (well, was) running at capacity and if a flight is delayed, another flight may be rescheduled to an earlier time.
  - kortilla 6y ago
    NRT... ugh, flights so stacked going in that a plane failing to clear the runway fast enough resulted in us having to go-around and re-enter the deep approach queue. A nice 30 minutes added to an already 12 hour flight...
    - johnwalkr 6y ago
      Yeah, or you land and see the dreaded bus awaiting which means an extra 30 minutes to arrive at the airport itself. Or worse, you're departing and get through security and walk for ages to get to your gate, go through another security thing without thinking, and then realize a) you're in some weird bus terminal and 60 minutes before the flight the bus is starting to board to take passengers to the plane which is not close b) you're a 15 minute walk and 15 minutes security line away from that cluster of restaurants you decided not to stop at
renewiltord 6y ago
In this case, it's annoying because you'll have missed a semi-rapid and the next comparable train to Tsukuba will leave 9 minutes later and arrive 17 minutes later. It's not a 40 minute thing, this isn't Caltrain, but it's still annoying.
- supernova87a 6y ago
  I loved (not really) how sometimes on Caltrain, if the trains were delayed, you could get on a delayed train after you had planned to travel, and get home sooner than if the trains had been running on time. (I'll let you think on that puzzle.)
  - sudosysgen 6y ago
    That was my experience of French trains right before the strikes :)
  - pt 6y ago
    Baby bullet.
    - supernova87a 6y ago
      yup.
  - lstamour 6y ago
    The same often happened when I travelled by train in Ontario (Canada) where the trains shared the line with freight service, and so sometimes a train was poorly timed such that it always had to wait for freight to clear first. In those cases, if a train was delayed, the delay occurred at the station such that by the time the train left the station, the freight had already cleared and the time spent on the train was less than it normally would be. Also, delays often meant the train had fewer passengers, so it would stop for less time at each stop... am I on the right track? ;-)
    - Thorrez 6y ago
userbinator 6y ago
but still, leaving early by any amount of time is a lot worse than leaving late Unless you have a tight next connection, in which case leaving late often means arriving late too, and thus missing that one.
- pboutros 6y ago
  Think of how much worse tight connections are when your connection leaves earlier than it was supposed to!
jaChEWAg 6y ago
You think 20 seconds is a big deal? I urge you to try the NYC subway system once. That's all I'm going to say
fuzzythinker 6y ago
At least they feel bad and apologized. Caltrain leaves early 20+ secs all the time and they cared less.
- jjeaff 6y ago
  It's not about the apology, I think. It's about the fact that in order to issue am apology, the thing you are apologizing for must be out of the ordinary. Call Trans could issue an apology and it wouldn't help. Because they would just have a daily apology log filled to the brim.
- ardy42 6y ago
  > At least they feel bad and apologized. Caltrain leaves early 20+ secs all the time and they cared less. How confident are you that your clock wasn't 20 seconds slow? https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/cell-phone-clock-accuracy.143167/ https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/cell-phone-clock... > I have a company where everyone has a phone that used the same calender program, same service, same type of phone, etc. At 8:50 and again at 9:00 every phone will ding to announce 9:00 meeting. There is no 0.01 second syncing of the phones. The time might be exactly the same but the "dings" happens over 30 seconds. Then one phone might be a good minute or more off. (usually mine) There are many times where the dings are within 5 seconds.
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    Easy enough to visit https://time.is/ https://time.is/ My phone is within a second.
Kipters 6y ago
My father has been working in public transportation for nearly 30 years, the only official complaint he ever received was for leaving 3 minutes early (good old times of analog wrist watches)
Bobbcatt 6y ago
> leaving early by any amount of time is a lot worse than leaving late) So if you have a connecting flight and you miss it because you leave late, that's better than leaving 1 second early?
tmmx 6y ago
In this case though, next train was arriving in 4 minutes IIRC. But in Japan, being late even for less than 5 mins is not acceptable.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

apengwin 6y ago

I think this is why trains and airplanes tend to be delayed so much. It is much better to be late than to leave early. A train that's late will usually still eventually arrive.

johnwalkr 6y ago
At Tokyo Narita airport, it is (well, was) running at capacity and if a flight is delayed, another flight may be rescheduled to an earlier time.
- kortilla 6y ago
  NRT... ugh, flights so stacked going in that a plane failing to clear the runway fast enough resulted in us having to go-around and re-enter the deep approach queue. A nice 30 minutes added to an already 12 hour flight...
  - johnwalkr 6y ago
    Yeah, or you land and see the dreaded bus awaiting which means an extra 30 minutes to arrive at the airport itself. Or worse, you're departing and get through security and walk for ages to get to your gate, go through another security thing without thinking, and then realize a) you're in some weird bus terminal and 60 minutes before the flight the bus is starting to board to take passengers to the plane which is not close b) you're a 15 minute walk and 15 minutes security line away from that cluster of restaurants you decided not to stop at

renewiltord 6y ago

In this case, it's annoying because you'll have missed a semi-rapid and the next comparable train to Tsukuba will leave 9 minutes later and arrive 17 minutes later. It's not a 40 minute thing, this isn't Caltrain, but it's still annoying.

supernova87a 6y ago
I loved (not really) how sometimes on Caltrain, if the trains were delayed, you could get on a delayed train after you had planned to travel, and get home sooner than if the trains had been running on time. (I'll let you think on that puzzle.)
- sudosysgen 6y ago
  That was my experience of French trains right before the strikes :)
- pt 6y ago
  Baby bullet.
  - supernova87a 6y ago
    yup.
- lstamour 6y ago
  The same often happened when I travelled by train in Ontario (Canada) where the trains shared the line with freight service, and so sometimes a train was poorly timed such that it always had to wait for freight to clear first. In those cases, if a train was delayed, the delay occurred at the station such that by the time the train left the station, the freight had already cleared and the time spent on the train was less than it normally would be. Also, delays often meant the train had fewer passengers, so it would stop for less time at each stop... am I on the right track? ;-)
  - Thorrez 6y ago

userbinator 6y ago

but still, leaving early by any amount of time is a lot worse than leaving late Unless you have a tight next connection, in which case leaving late often means arriving late too, and thus missing that one.

pboutros 6y ago
Think of how much worse tight connections are when your connection leaves earlier than it was supposed to!

jaChEWAg 6y ago

You think 20 seconds is a big deal? I urge you to try the NYC subway system once. That's all I'm going to say

fuzzythinker 6y ago

At least they feel bad and apologized. Caltrain leaves early 20+ secs all the time and they cared less.

jjeaff 6y ago
It's not about the apology, I think. It's about the fact that in order to issue am apology, the thing you are apologizing for must be out of the ordinary. Call Trans could issue an apology and it wouldn't help. Because they would just have a daily apology log filled to the brim.
ardy42 6y ago
> At least they feel bad and apologized. Caltrain leaves early 20+ secs all the time and they cared less. How confident are you that your clock wasn't 20 seconds slow? https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/cell-phone-clock-accuracy.143167/ https://www.electro-tech-online.com/threads/cell-phone-clock... > I have a company where everyone has a phone that used the same calender program, same service, same type of phone, etc. At 8:50 and again at 9:00 every phone will ding to announce 9:00 meeting. There is no 0.01 second syncing of the phones. The time might be exactly the same but the "dings" happens over 30 seconds. Then one phone might be a good minute or more off. (usually mine) There are many times where the dings are within 5 seconds.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  Easy enough to visit https://time.is/ https://time.is/ My phone is within a second.

Kipters 6y ago

My father has been working in public transportation for nearly 30 years, the only official complaint he ever received was for leaving 3 minutes early (good old times of analog wrist watches)

Bobbcatt 6y ago

> leaving early by any amount of time is a lot worse than leaving late) So if you have a connecting flight and you miss it because you leave late, that's better than leaving 1 second early?

tmmx 6y ago

In this case though, next train was arriving in 4 minutes IIRC. But in Japan, being late even for less than 5 mins is not acceptable.