We’re not thrilled about the MTA’s 5:59 rule, which says that a train is on time if it lumbers into the station within five minutes and 59 seconds of when it’s supposed to. And we don’t love the fact that the MTA trumpets its dubious 98% “on time” scores each month in Mileposts.
What if everyone decided it was OK to be six minutes late? What if Heroes started six minutes after you’d taken a seat and popped open a beer? How would you feel? What if you decided to be six minutes late for the train–would it wait for you?
Anyway, we’re putting the train to the test in the month of July. Instead of giving Metro-North a 5:59 cushion, we’re giving it a 59-second cushion. So, as long as the train that’s due in at 9:05 pulls in before the little hand gets to :06, it’s on-time. (We’ll synchronize our watch to the “Official U.S. Time” website.
We’ll be tabulating the scores, and seeing how they stack up against the scores the MTA gives itself.
Based on eight months of daily riding, our offhand guess is that the train will be on-time, according to our criterion, around 15% of the time.
As of Monday, it’s game on.
Has anyone created a publicly accessible Google Sheets spreadsheet fot Trainjotting users to collectively post the results for their train(s)?
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