Friday, July 24, 2009

Making Fullers run on time

A flyer was handed out to passengers by ferry staff on Wednesday night - always an occasion for apprehension because it usually spells bad news of some kind, either boat breakdowns (Jet Raider gave up the ghost after two weeks during this year's Superflyte survey - surely a record!) or fare increase announcements.

But no, instead it told us of the installation of a new feature on Pier 2: an electronic clock. The aim is to co-ordinate the boat clocks with the wharf clocks so everybody will know what time it is that the ferry leaves. Finally, 160 years after England standardised its timezone due to the arrival of the railway, Auckland ferry time clocks on board and on land will now be GPS controlled. How that will contributes to the sum total happiness of the population remains a mystery, but I can think of one useful feature: it will enable everybody to see, to the second, whether the Fullers publicity claim of 35 minutes to and from Waiheke corresponds with reality.
On Thursday morning I arrived at 8.38.50, which is a 10% delay. Feel free to keep noting down arrival times and mail it to us.
Arrival times are far more relevant to passengers than departure times since onward connections are made or lost by any delays.

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