[TUHS] OT: trains [Was: Date madness]

[Steve Mynott]

On 17 December 2017 at 21:24, Ian Zimmerman <itz at very.loosely.org> wrote:
> On 2017-12-17 15:07, Ron Natalie wrote:
>
>> Amtrak has an amusing way of handling the time change.  A train just
>> never departs before it's published time.  This means in the spring;
>> the trains just tend to run an hour late (or later than normal).  In
>> the fall, the train sits at whatever station it had arrived at before
>> 2 AM and waits until the clock catches up.
>
> How do other train systems handle it, e.g. the European intercity system?

A thread on https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/about-the-clocks-going-forward.43348/
suggests the UK practice (at least in 2011) as documented in the
"Weekly Operating Notice" for the time change week is:

"trains to due to commence their journey before 0100 should run as if
GMT still applies. Trains due to commence their journey at or after
0200 will run at BST. Train crew booking on times should be adjusted
accordingly. Any times between 0100 and 0200 should clearly indicate
whether they are BST or GMT."

A quick google suggests other railway companies might generally handle
this problem differently with Sweden claimed to use the Amtrak
solution of waiting an hour so probably domestic European train
practice differs.

I would guess international trains might function as aircraft and use
local time. The timetabling for such trains is more likely to
regularly use different time zones anyway.

I wonder how Amtrak handles different time zones within the US?

-- 
4096R/EA75174B Steve Mynott <steve.mynott at gmail.com>