Cynical or what?

"The train now standing at Platform 1 is still half a mile away."

Yes, really! It seems that train companies count a train as having arrived at a station when the front of the train passes the last track-side detector before the station - which can be up to half a mile away. I really shouldn't be surprised. Before I retired, I commuted to London on a daily basis for some fourteen years (and boy, was I glad when that finished!). In an effort to "encourage" the railway companies to improve their performance, the railway watchdog decreed that season ticket holders were to be allowed a discount on renewal if the reliability of the service and the punctuality of the trains had not met given standards during the previous year. It took the operating companies very little time to realise that if they altered their timetables to show an arrival time a few minutes later than previously, more trains would arrive at their destinations on time. Mind you, "on time" meant anything up to ten minutes late.

So why is it that I am surprised by this latest revelation?