What... exactly... does 'on time' mean?
According to my dictionary:
"punctual |ˈpə ng k ch oōəl|
adjective happening or doing something at the agreed or proper time; on time : he's the sort of man who's always punctual."
Now, clearly, that's not exactly what NXEC mean. What NXEC say is: "Punctuality is measured as a percentage of all National Express East Coast trains that have arrived at their final destination within ten minutes of the advertised time: this is known as the Public Performance Measure (PPM)."
But, of course, the 'advertised' time, as anyone can tell from a quick peek at the Kings Cross arrivals board is anything from 2 to 6 minutes later than when NXEC think the train'll actually get there.
Anyone want to tell me how much slack there is on top of that in the working timetable? I've been told that pre-Hatfield the actual no-slack time was around 34 mins from Peterborough to King's Cross.
Of course, in order to meet performance goals, NXEC only have to meet the PPM nine times out of ten.
So. Anyway. On time? Means "no more than 15 mins later than we think we can do it, PLUS we can balls it up totally about five times a day."
My season ticket renewal last week, needless to say, didn't get a discount. At least I don't think it did, since I can't actually find out on the NXEC web site how much I should have paid.
Of course, that was the grandfathered GNER-style compensation clause. From now on, I can claim for individual delays.... and look, we have another brand spanking new definition of 'on time'.
THIRTY minutes later than the already generous timetable. And I get paid in lovely, shiny, NXEC vouchers. At least I can use 'em to pay for next year's season ticket, but... hey, look. Now we can balls up EVERY train EVERY day by 29 minutes (plus our generous slack built in to the timetable) and not have to compensate the customers.
http://themodelcommuter.com
2008-04-11 @ 14:01