Why don't train companies install a little box in stations that you can use to stamp your ticket on arrival for the purposes of making a delay-repay claim. (This would be simlar to the box some European countries use to validate a ticket prior to departure.)
Then all of this very useful information about train punctuality could be in the public sector, where it ought to be. flightstats.com does exactly the same thing for planes with no problems I'm aware of and very useful it is too.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
"To ensure a prompt departure, train doors maybe closed upto one minute before the advertised departure time."
Am I the only one who finds this annoying? The time can vary from 20 seconds up to 2 minutes, depending on station, and there is no advance warning -- until you arrive at the station -- that the published departure time is actually not your deadline.
I've happily scheduled my life according to a spot-on radio-controlled watch for several years now -- aren't all modern watches like that these days? -- so would be very angry were I to arrive at Euston two minutes before the advertised departure time -- perhaps beacuse of circumstances beyond my control -- and be denied boarding.
Why not simply revise the timetable to show the barriers-close/doors-shut time, rather than the time the train is supposed to start moving, and stick to that rigidly?
In any case, in my experience, Pendolinos regularly take advantage of of the earlier doors-close time to actually depart 30-90 seconds in advance of the scheduled depature time.
Of course, the status quo, i.e. being able to leave early, conveniently provides a significant help to Virgin in artificially and misleadingly reducing the published journey time and also in improving "on-time" performance.
