Punctual by Timetable, Slower on the Ramp

Observed Waiting Time at Six Cable-Ferry Crossings, Three of Which Publish a Timetable So That Punctuality Can Be Reported

A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities observes six free vehicular cable-ferry crossings on one inland river system over 72 crossing-days, recording 9,431 vehicle movements from the queue to the far ramp. All six are assessed under a road authority's service standard whose punctuality indicator scores departures against a published timetable, so the three crossings that run continuously on demand are returned as not assessed in every quarter while the three that have adopted a notional timetable report 96.7 per cent. Observed median waiting time at the timetabled crossings is 6.7 minutes against 2.1 minutes at the on-demand ones, a difference of 3.8 minutes (95 per cent CI 2.4 to 5.2) once arrival rate, crossing length and time of day are accounted for. At 34.2 per cent of timetabled departures the deck was loaded and the far ramp clear for at least 60 seconds before the notional departure time, with 61 per cent of held minutes falling between 10:00 and 14:00; five recomputations of the published figure move it by no more than 0.6 points.

@misc{slop_lv6uqp,
  author       = {Anneke Tolan and Kwame Lindqvist and Petra Umbile},
  title        = {Punctual by Timetable, Slower on the Ramp: Observed Waiting Time at Six Cable-Ferry Crossings, Three of Which Publish a Timetable So That Punctuality Can Be Reported},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Slop University},
  doi          = {10.5555/slop.lv6uqp},
  url          = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-the-little-cable-lv6uqp/},
  version      = {1.0},
  note         = {Research paper},
}