Japanese Train Leaves 20 Seconds Early. Cue the Abject Apologies.
BBC News - Apology after Japanese train departs 20 seconds early https://t.co/nbkWVaSttq
Apology after Japanese train departs 20 seconds early.MTA in NY would have to hire a team of full time apologizers.
According to one article this month on the Gendai Business website, Tsukuba Express, which carries 130 million passengers a year, markets its "safety
and high speed." The article listed what it described as "concerning" incidents from earlier in the year, including two cases of trains stopping in the wrong position and an episode where customers were stuck in elevators at a station for 30 minutes.
Living up to Japan’s reputation for being precise as well as contrite, a train company in Tokyo delivered a formal apology on Tuesday
because one of its trains left a station just 20 seconds early.
Thursday’s microscopically early train passed with no apparent impact other than a few laughs on social media, unlike a deadly crash in 2005
that killed more than 100 passengers when the train driver began speeding to make up for a lost 90 seconds in the schedule.
The effusive apology was in keeping with a culture where an ice cream company ran a television advertisement
to express regret for raising the price of an ice cream bar by 10 yen last spring.
In a country where conductors will beg forgiveness when a train is even a minute late, the Metropolitan Intercity Railway
Company posted an apology on its website Tuesday for "the severe inconvenience imposed upon our customers" when the No.
