buggy6257
8 hours ago
> And despite it all, the complaints are so numerous because the number of passengers and the number of trains is also so numerous! If a train on a track with 3 trains a day in France gets delayed, there will be no knock on effect on any other train. A delay to a train on a track with 3 trains every 10 minutes in Germany will have a much larger impact.
Okay sooo…explain japans nearly flawless record of trains? The whole country is littered with them.
This guy did a single train trip and experienced no delays there and has decided this is the factual experience for the entire history of the rail line. This joke became a joke for a reason. What an absurd article.
I’ve never experienced a delay on a delta flight in my life (having flown the for almost every flight) but that doesn’t mean they don’t have delays.
frxx
6 hours ago
I'm not sure if most people know but you need to distinguish between two kinds of trains here.
The Shinkansen system is rarely late, that is true. Part of the reason for that is that they are running on their own, isolated tracks. Downside here is that they are quite expensive. Flights between, let's say Tokyo and Osaka, are often faster and cheaper.
The trains that normal people take every day to get to work, are, depending on city and line/owner of course, partially late every single day during rush hour. They don't even show the time or kind of the next train that will come.
The commuters of course know this and just leave the house a bit earlier, so in practice it's not a huge problem.
marak830
4 hours ago
As someone who has been riding trains to YOK every day for the last 5 years. I don't agree, unless you mean by partially late 1 minute.
I'll admit I rarely take trains that are not on the JR line - so perhaps you're referencing them? Either way I can generally time leaving home and returning home to within 3-4 minutes every day.
JumpCrisscross
6 hours ago
> because the number of passengers and the number of trains is also so numerous!
I don't think the author's hypothesis, that complaints scale with utilisation, holds.
Germans travel fewer kilometers per year per capita by passenger rail than Japan, Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, France and Korea [1]. The two topping that list–Japan and Switzerland–also have exceptional systems.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_rail_usag...
kevin_thibedeau
7 hours ago
Japan has institutionalized perfectionism.
rayiner
7 hours ago
If autism was a country. (I say that with the deepest affection for both autists and Japan.)