The Tube - episode 3

[greatkingrat]

"1 minute" could mean anywhere between 1:00 and 1:59 until the train arrives

[tubeguru]

i'll start a thread for Episode 4, for sure. although having said that i'll be out on Monday evening so will have to watch it iPlayer-styli when i return home...

interesting that you mention the 1-minutes though. i've got quite a few timings in my app now for when the board says "1 minute", how long the trains actually takes to arrive and come to a stand still. the average is 1 minute, 27 seconds - with Central line trains being the worst, where a 1 minute usually means between 1m40s and 1m50s ...

I thought Piccadilly Line trains were the worst in minutes, you said so in your report of your 17th time doing the challenge.

Do you take everything everyone says at face value, and to be the absolute truth?

[hakc97]

Do you take everything everyone says at face value, and to be the absolute truth?

Not always

[hopeful traveller]

"1 minute" could mean anywhere between 1:00 and 1:59 until the train arrives

why? to me 1 minute should mean "No more than 1 minute", "1 minute or less".

So what do you describe 1:30 as? It's clearly not 2 minutes.

[Iain]

I guess this just shows how widely opinions can differ on this subject. If I was forced to pin down my answer I'd say something along the lines of 1 minute is somewhere between 30 seconds and 1 minute 29 seconds. So while HT sees 1:30 as "clearly not two minutes", to me it's an entirely reasonable answer.

[Steeevooo]

To me, the time shown on the board should mean to within the time shown, i.e. if it shows 2 minutes, then it should arrive within two minutes.

[Cheshire Cat]

The problem with displaying a maximum waiting time is that the boards woud still be showing 1 min as the train pulled into the station, which could be annoying for someone standing at the bottom of the stairs at Campden deciding which train to go for (or a Tube Challenger having a quick toilet stop!)

Iain's suggestion of using 1 minute to signifiy 00:31 to 01:30 seems the most logical, because in theory it is a maximum of 30 seconds out, whereas with either of the other two conventions there is a possibility of a 59 second discrepancy.

What drives the system? I've always assumed its the track circuits, in which case the times must be very approximate. Perhaps they shold display next trains in terms of distance rather than time (although that wouldn't work for terminal stations!)

[Root]

To me, the time shown on the board should mean to within the time shown, i.e. if it shows 2 minutes, then it should arrive within two minutes.

So, what about when it shows 0 minutes?

I agree with Iain and Cheshire Cat.

[Iain]

Just to be awkward(!) I'm now starting to think maybe Stevo's idea is better. My previous post is perhaps mathematically more sensible (it's a bit like rounding numbers to zero decimal places - so 1.5 minutes is rounded up to 2) but if I was waiting for the train I'm not certain I'd view it the same way.

One of our trains during the all lines run said "1 minute" on the DMI. We didn't mentally note the precise time on the clock but it was 11:37 and some seconds, and the train didn't pull in until 11:40 and 20 plus seconds, so at least 2 minutes 21 seconds from when we arrived on the platform

[tubeguru]

If we assume that at the moment the display changes to "2 min" then the train will arrive in exactly two minutes (I know - a HUGE assumption), then when it changes to "1 min", the train should be here in one minute.

By logical extension of this, we can take it that when the train is one minute and 30 seconds away the display will still be showing "2 min".

So:

Display shows "5 min" - train is between four and five minutes away
Display shows "4 min" - train is between three and four minutes away
Display shows "3 min" - train is between two and three minutes away
Display shows "2 min" - train is between one and two minutes away
Display shows "1 min" - train is no more than one minute away
Display shows "0 min" - train SHOULD be here.

To be fair to the system, trains do usually arrive within 15 or so seconds of the display changing to "0 min".

That's how I see it.