I was looking through Amtrak's website in the Historical On-Time Performance section. What exactly does "On-Time" mean?
Example 1: The Southwest Chief leaves Chicago on time, then is 30 minutes late at every station, but then catches-up to its schedule and arrives in Los Angeles on time. Does this count as 100% on time, or does it count mostly as late?
Example 2: The Southwest Chief leaves Chicago and is on time at every station, except it arrives in Los Angeles 5 minutes late. Does this count as the entire train being late?
Is there a grace period? Only five minutes late may count as on-time.
I can see that there are several ways to keep track of these statistics. I would like to see some of your opinions.
Posted by ehbowen (Member # 4317) on :
I don't know if there have been changes, but I seem to recall that in the early '80s if a train was within fifteen minutes of schedule it was regarded as being "on-time" by Amtrak.