Keep Your Eyes Open for New Schedules
Expect new schedules to be published at least 3 times per year
At least 3 times per year, probably more, new train schedules are published and the crew swaps jobs. When you're riding the train long enough you'll start to notice the crew shifts - especially when your favorite conductor switches out. Generally it seems to happen about seasonably, give or take.
The new schedules either change a little (a few minutes here or there), not at all or a lot (add trains, drop trains, change by 15+ minutes, etc). The few minute changes are usually to bake in extra time for trains that don't make their expected schedule, which can result in line congestion - train traffic. Bigger changes may be the result of construction, budgeting service cuts and track sharing. If two train lines are sharing the same tracks, changes to one schedule will affect the other. On my one train line, they temporarily add extra trains for the winter holidays.
Unusually the big changes are rare, but they do happen. You may need to change your routine. One change for my schedule last year meant I had to start waking up 15 minutes earlier to make it into work by the same time. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
You generally don't have to worry about missing a new schedule. See if your train line has an announcements mailing list that you can sign up for. Some conductors will clue you in especially if there's a noticeable difference coming or keep an eye out for boxes in the station with big signs saying new schedules particularly near the ticket office.
Make sure you have a current copy on you to minimize surprises when traveling outside of your usual schedule. Those are probably the trains that will see more changes than the peak hour trains.
Posted: April 3, 2007 (Permlink to this Tip)
Posted in Schedules & Delays
Tags: crew , schedule , updates
