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Scheduling, at peak time trains can arrive once every three minutes (across a handful of platforms, but they need to leave via the same lines). So you can imagi

by ehnto 4y ago

Scheduling, at peak time trains can arrive once every three minutes (across a handful of platforms, but they need to leave via the same lines). So you can imagine someone faffing about with their bicycle for 5 minutes causing a national network delay would be somewhat of an embarrassing situation. It's hard to explain how excellent the punctuality is, it essentially wastes none of your time. You don't sit at junctions, you don't have to wait for a platform to free up, you never miss your train because it left early. Everyone is already lined up by their respective cars, ready to board the moment the train is available to board. So within 5-10 minutes, your train has arrived, people have disembarked, you have boarded, and your train has left. Remembering this is an intercity train network, so it'd be like being able to arrive at the airport with your ticket, board the plane, and take off, within 10 minutes.

logifail 4y ago
> So within 5-10 minutes, your train has arrived, people have disembarked, you have boarded, and your train has left Isn't this pretty standard SOP for how long-distance trains stop at intermediate stations around the world? I've recently travelled in Germany and Austria and their ICE and Railjet trains, respectively, have stops of only 2-3 minutes at a majority of intermediate stations.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  GP seems to be from Australia, where a random timetable I found shows a Sydney-Canberra train has 10-25 minute stops at various stations -- I assume the larger ones. I've experienced the same on trains in the USA. It's called "dwell time" if you want to Google, but in Europe I'd guess - at many stations it's around 1 minute - at large towns it can be 2-3 minutes, especially if it's likely many people will board/alight - at the very largest through stations it can be 5-10 minutes. That would be somewhere you might expect half the passengers (or more) to change, like Berlin or Madrid. Metro and commuter trains have more doors to make boarding/alighting faster. Long-distance trains have fewer doors to make the interior quieter and more comfortable.
  - logifail 4y ago
    > That would be somewhere you might expect half the passengers (or more) to change, like Berlin or Madrid (From experience) I would suspect it's more about train crew changes, restocking the restaurant car, and/or allowing extra time to recover from any delays.
  - ehnto 4y ago
    They also still get delayed, even with such large dwell times. So simply increasing dwell time isn't enough to cater for the different requirements. Such low dwell times work for the Shinkansen because of the organisation of the passengers and the limited ways in which boarding can go wrong. There is an element of ruthlessness to that, the margin of error for you the passenger is small.

by ehnto 4y ago

logifail 4y ago

> So within 5-10 minutes, your train has arrived, people have disembarked, you have boarded, and your train has left Isn't this pretty standard SOP for how long-distance trains stop at intermediate stations around the world? I've recently travelled in Germany and Austria and their ICE and Railjet trains, respectively, have stops of only 2-3 minutes at a majority of intermediate stations.

Symbiote 4y ago
GP seems to be from Australia, where a random timetable I found shows a Sydney-Canberra train has 10-25 minute stops at various stations -- I assume the larger ones. I've experienced the same on trains in the USA. It's called "dwell time" if you want to Google, but in Europe I'd guess - at many stations it's around 1 minute - at large towns it can be 2-3 minutes, especially if it's likely many people will board/alight - at the very largest through stations it can be 5-10 minutes. That would be somewhere you might expect half the passengers (or more) to change, like Berlin or Madrid. Metro and commuter trains have more doors to make boarding/alighting faster. Long-distance trains have fewer doors to make the interior quieter and more comfortable.
- logifail 4y ago
  > That would be somewhere you might expect half the passengers (or more) to change, like Berlin or Madrid (From experience) I would suspect it's more about train crew changes, restocking the restaurant car, and/or allowing extra time to recover from any delays.
- ehnto 4y ago
  They also still get delayed, even with such large dwell times. So simply increasing dwell time isn't enough to cater for the different requirements. Such low dwell times work for the Shinkansen because of the organisation of the passengers and the limited ways in which boarding can go wrong. There is an element of ruthlessness to that, the margin of error for you the passenger is small.