they abuse this mechanic to catch up on late trains, by stopping their trains a couple stops before the end stop and turning them around to drive the other direction, now not late anymore.
Ah, the Ryanair approach. But unreliable arrival times are annoying for passengers and a drain. Sure, build in a small amount of slack, but a functioning train system should be able to get to 90% punctuality without adding 15 minutes of slack everywhere.
That obviously can’t be done regularly without impacting the whole system though. Meaning either that’s why they’re always late everywhere, or that doesn’t happen very frequently
Iirc for the DB a train is considered on time when it’s not later than 7 min on arrival. Which is a joke if you miss your following connection.
A train that doesn’t arrive at all is also not considered late.
they abuse this mechanic to catch up on late trains, by stopping their trains a couple stops before the end stop and turning them around to drive the other direction, now not late anymore.
The Pofalla-turnaround, named after a politician
I have this same argument with my spouse. If fifteen minutes late is “on time”, then change the arrival time and just be on time.
Ah, the Ryanair approach. But unreliable arrival times are annoying for passengers and a drain. Sure, build in a small amount of slack, but a functioning train system should be able to get to 90% punctuality without adding 15 minutes of slack everywhere.
Luckily the next train you have to take is also late, so nothing really changes. A system so broken that it works “perfectly”.
Having been on a delayed German train, my connection actually waited so that everyone on my train connecting to it could catch it…
That obviously can’t be done regularly without impacting the whole system though. Meaning either that’s why they’re always late everywhere, or that doesn’t happen very frequently