In a message dated 2000-12-26 18:09:11 Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> There has been mention on this list of 24-hour time instead of AM-PM.
> Today CBC-Radio Canada screened a video about Sandford Fleming, chief
> engineer of the Canadian Pacific Railway (and I don't mean engineer
> driver). He was concerned about trying to produce train timetables when
> every city had its own time, based on local noon at 12:00. He proposed 24
> standard time zones around the world. Washington picked up the idea within
> a year and convened an internatioinal conference that decided that xone 0
> should be based on the Greenwich meridian
>
> Fleming once turned up at a London station at 7:30 AM when in fact the
> train was scheduled for 7:30 PM. That led him to propose 24-hour time. It
> is used throughout the world, on published Canadian railway and air
> timetables and in the Province of Quebec. Otherwise, English-speaking
> Canada and USA cling to AM-PM.
>
>
There are a few breakthroughs.
Most railroads run internally on the 24-hour clock (train orders,
dispatching, etc.), although in the USA they put on the 12-hour "face"
because "that's what people are used to". I used to work in the San
Francisco station and about every two weeks people would show up at 0800 for
the 2020 departure to Seattle.
United Airlines publishes its system timetable in 24-hour format. Its
reservation web site (www.ual.com) is also in 24-hour format. But when you
get your tickets, they are am/pm. (Our corporate travel arranger may use a
different system still stuck in the old ways.)
Last summer I changed planes in Atlanta. Our arrival from Portland, Oregon
was at terminal E, the international terminal (because the equipment was
going on to Sao Paolo). All times on the display systems operated by Delta
there were in 24-hour format, and I was pleased at Delta's progressive
attitude. Until I got to domestic terminal B, of course -- back to am/pm.
Grrr.
The mentality is the same as sticking with imperial/FFU. "This is what we
are used to, don't mess with us", and it's carried out by head-in-the-sand
legislators.
Carleton
