Friday, April 29, 2005

What price punctuality?

The public rail network in Sydney has earned a lot of criticism over the last years with trains not showing up, or chronically late. They have fiddled with the timetables, tried to recruit new drivers, and heavens knows what else to fix it.
Plagued with a similar problem in Tokyo, their rail network had instigated a system for "talking" to drivers who ran late - even a second late.
The driver of the train which crashed into the side of an apartment building in Japan earlier this week had previously been cautioned for running late. On the day of the accident, he had overshot a station platform by some metres, backed back to the platform, and then proceeded on his way, seemingly at speed, reportedly to make up for the lost time.
They are still investigating the cause of the accident, but if the driver was speeding, it would not have helped in the chain of circumstances which resulted in the accident.
Did those who lost their life because of the crash pay the ultimate price for the punctuality of a rail network?

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