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Re: DesertXpress High Speed Rail ... mother lode of comedy
Author: Darn Lies and Statistics
Date: 08-02-2011 - 18:59
And from halfway around the world:
Latest black-eye for China railways ministry: dubious statistics
WSJ
Between its public launch on June 30 and the end of July, the crown-jewel of China’s high-speed rail system carried an average of 179 trains a day and transported a total of 5.26 million passengers, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website (in Chinese). Those numbers, the statement said, mean the line ran at 107% of capacity.
Accounts from passengers suggest China’s high-speed trains, many of which were struggling to fill seats before the accident, have been running half-empty in recent days.
The better-than-perfect number appears not to be a lie, exactly, but rather a consequence of the Railways Ministry’s unorthodox approach to calculating ridership.
>>>> The ministry counts one seat on a Chinese train as being at 200% capacity if two different people sit on it during different legs of the trip, Zhao Jian, a railway expert at Beijing Jiaotong University, told the state-run China Daily newspaper on Tuesday. <<<<
He added that foreign railways typically figure capacity by the percentage of a trip the seat is occupied.
Amtrak, as well as most American airlines, calculate percentage capacity by dividing “passenger miles,” or the total length of the trip times the number of occupied seats, by “seat miles,” the length of the trip times the total number of seats.
Latest black-eye for China railways ministry: dubious statistics
WSJ
Between its public launch on June 30 and the end of July, the crown-jewel of China’s high-speed rail system carried an average of 179 trains a day and transported a total of 5.26 million passengers, according to a statement posted on the ministry’s website (in Chinese). Those numbers, the statement said, mean the line ran at 107% of capacity.
Accounts from passengers suggest China’s high-speed trains, many of which were struggling to fill seats before the accident, have been running half-empty in recent days.
The better-than-perfect number appears not to be a lie, exactly, but rather a consequence of the Railways Ministry’s unorthodox approach to calculating ridership.
>>>> The ministry counts one seat on a Chinese train as being at 200% capacity if two different people sit on it during different legs of the trip, Zhao Jian, a railway expert at Beijing Jiaotong University, told the state-run China Daily newspaper on Tuesday. <<<<
He added that foreign railways typically figure capacity by the percentage of a trip the seat is occupied.
Amtrak, as well as most American airlines, calculate percentage capacity by dividing “passenger miles,” or the total length of the trip times the number of occupied seats, by “seat miles,” the length of the trip times the total number of seats.
