Railroads in the USA converted to '24 hour' time for train dispatching purposes in the mid-late 1980s and early 1990s for just those very reasons. Accurate and clear timekeeping in railroading is a *critical* 'life safety' issue and the possible ambiguities related to 'AM vs PM' was simply risky to accept. After a day or two of re-orienting the employess (mainly getting them used to the new format), the conversions went very smoothly, too, from what I hear. -- ____________________________________________________________________________ Regards, Michael G. Koerner Appleton, WI ____________________________________________________________________________ "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Subject: [USMA:14066] Re: Metric Marketing > Date: Wed, 27 Jun 2001 23:25:50 -0400 > From: "kilopascal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: U.S. Metric Association <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > 2001-06-27 > > The am/pm time keeping system helps promote this type of ignorance. > I've > had, and I know others have had numerous incidences where a flight I > wanted > to book was for 07:00 ish and when I got the itinerary it was for > 19:00 ( > 7:00 pm ish as stated). A few times I didn't pay close attention to > the > am/pm notation until a few days later. Then when I called back the > agent to > correct the error, they wanted to charge me 100 $ plus the going rate > to > reissue the ticket. When I complained it was their error, and made an > issue > of it, they went to talk to their supervisor and the issue was settled > in my > favour. > > When I requested that my itineraries show 24 h time, all I got was a > litany > of ignorant comments, like "..this isn't Europe, we don't do that > here", or > "nobody would understand it". To which my response was, apparently > nobody > understands am/pm as this isn't the first time this type of error was > made. > And if it was done to me, ho many others was it done to too? > > Now, we do all our bookings on-line and I have my preferences set for > 24 h > time. No more am/pm errors. > > John > > P.S. If any of you travelers change your itererary and are told you > have to > pay a penalty of 75 to 100 $, DO NOT go to the ticket counter to > check-in. > Go directly to the gate. At the gate they will issue you a new ticket > and > not charge the fees. > > John > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Stephen C. Gallagher" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Wednesday, 2001-06-27 21:16 > Subject: [USMA:14065] Re: Metric Marketing > > > > > > > > > The TV logs don't help things as they show that "Friday" goes on > until > > about 0400 Saturday, so people don't think the day ends at midnight > -- and > > miss trains as a result -- they call to board "Friday's" train at > 0015 > > (thinking late Friday night) then get there on Saturday at 0015 and > find > > someone else in the room -- we booked them on Friday's train but > they > showed > > up a day late. The day ends at midnight, not when you go to bed ... > > > > > > Carleton > > > > > > > > That happened to me a few years ago at JFK in New York, > > only in reverse. My flight from LAX arrived at JFK after 0100 > > on April 5 (April 5 starting only 60 minutes previous). > > So I reserved a limousine to pick me up at that 0130 on > > April 5. Well, I get off the plane, claim my bags > > and then go looking for the limo, and nothing. Nobody > > was there. I phoned the limo company to ask about it > > and the dispatcher told me that my reservation was > > for, tomorrow night on April 5. I explained to him that > > it's been April 5 since 90 minutes ago. He told me > > that "they didn't work that way" and that I should have > > requested a limo for April 4 if I wanted to be picked up > > tonight. I told him to forget the whole thing and I got > > another limo.
