A Japanese railway company apologized for making a 'truly inexcusable' mistake after a train left 25 seconds early
A Japanese railway company has made global headlines after one of its trains left a few seconds earlier than scheduled.
Early Friday morning, a train en route to Nishi-Akashi Station departed Notogawa Station at 7:11:35 a.m. instead of 7:12 a.m. on the dot. The West Japan Railway Company, or JR West, later issued a formal apology via a press release on its website, Sora News reported.According to the railway company's statement, the train's conductor "misunderstood" the scheduled departure time and "sent a signal" to leave the station before 7:12 a.m. At that time, several people were still on the platform waiting to board. One of these passengers reported the incident to a station attendant, who contacted the Osaka General Directorate.
"The great inconvenience we placed upon our customers was truly inexcusable," JR West said. "We will be thoroughly evaluating our conduct and striving to keep such an incident from occurring again."
Japan's railway system is known for being one of the most punctual in the world — although recent reports suggest rush-hour congestion causes frequent delays in densely populated cities like Tokyo.
Just last year, managers of the Tsukuba Express Line between Tokyo and Tsukuba apologized after a train departed 20 seconds earlier than scheduled, even though not a single passenger complained.
Tags
Who is online
271 visitors
When they say on time, they mean it.....
One of the things Iliked when stationed in Japan was their puntcuality. Of course, I was a military guy, so on time is an important thing. I occaisionally fly to Baltimore and take an AMTRAK to Washington D.C., they are rarely on-time and when they aren't it's a sit down and shut up kind of thing as the staff doesn't really think they owe anyone an apology.
One time I was on a Metra commuter train , which is the train system connecting downtown Chicago and outlying neighborhoods , suburbs and towns. The train was leaving the downtown station at 4:30 on a Saturday afternoon, and because it was the weekend the next train on this particular line wouldn't be for two hours. As 4:30 on the dot approached, out the window one could see a man , a woman and a little girl running on the platform toward the doors of the train , waving their arms as if to say "wait for us". The conductor in charge saw them running up the platform , but when his assistant, a woman, went to hit the button to reopen the doors and let them on he stopped her saying " they are late. We have to teach them a lesson." Then the train pulled out of the station with those three people left standing there in shock, then waiting the two hours for the next train. True story.
Although trains should always be on time, in reality, in the US, they often are not. The Metra trains were often 5 or 10 minutes late arriving. Never early though.
I took an Amtrak from San Antonio to Chicago one time , and the train was 3 1/2 hours late pulling into Chicago.