Tokyo, Nov. 17 (TNS): A Japanese rail company has “deeply apologised” for a train leaving a station early — by 20 seconds.
The train was scheduled to depart at 9:44 am on Tuesday morning (local time), but an over-eager conductor let it go instead at 9:43:40. The incident happened at Minami Nagareyama station on the line connecting two towns 60 kilometres apart.
The trip takes 45 minutes, so travellers might expect a 20-second margin of error to fall within acceptable limits.
The train’s operator, though, believed the foul-up was serious enough to warrant an apology. “We deeply apologise for the severe inconvenience imposed upon our customers,” the Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company said in a statement.
The train’s conductor had not properly checked the train’s timetable, the firm said, adding that the crew had been instructed to strictly follow procedure to prevent a recurrence.
Passengers who might have made the train had it left on time in fact suffered little inconvenience: the next one arrived just four minutes later.
While delays – even of just a minute – prompt profuse apologies by Japanese train operators, Metropolitan Intercity’s mea culpa drew inevitable, and unfavourable, comparisons with rail services in other countries.
