Daylight saving and railways discussion

[TUC]

Most people who whinge about daylight saving time and campaign for BST all year round live not only in the far south of the British Isles, but also the far east. This means it stays light far later in winter than it does in say Derry or Lerwick. Before I retired, I was very glad not to have to scrape ice of my windscreen when I got up in the morning and set off for work at about 0830 as we were on GMT (in Cheshire).

Changing the system in the UK could also cause problems in Ireland where there would be two different times zones unless the Republic reluctantly followed suit.

It wouldn't just be the Republic where it would cause problems. When I used to take my daughter to school in Belfast, at 0840 on winter mornings it was just getting light. Remaining on BST would mean it wouldn't get light until 0940.

Advocates of continuous BST just show themselves to be insular Southerners.

 

[Falcon1200]

Advocates of continuous BST just show themselves to be insular Southerners.

Not necessarily; I advocate continuous BST and live in Scotland ! Part of the reason being that, working night shifts, in the depths of winter it is quite possible to get home and go to bed in darkness, and if a decent sleep is had, wake up to darkness again. To generalise wildly again, those against continuous BST just show themselves to be nine-to-fivers, not shift workers......

 

[TUC]

Not necessarily; I advocate continuous BST and live in Scotland ! Part of the reason being that, working night shifts, in the depths of winter it is quite possible to get home and go to bed in darkness, and if a decent sleep is had, wake up to darkness again. To generalise wildly again, those against continuous BST just show themselves to be nine-to-fivers, not shift workers......

That may be true up to a point. For those working early morning to mid afternoon or mid-afternoon to late evening shifts, the rimes of winter daylight are fairly irrelevant. Those working permenent nights are, I suspect, a relatively small part of the population.

 

[Statto]

I hate the idea of BST all year round, i live in Merseyside & sunrise would be 9.30am in January, & still after 9am in February if BST all year round, & i'm not a nine to fiver either, or eight to four either so i take offence at that notion.

 

[biko]

To go back to the question in the OP how it is managed on the continent: I read today that the Nightjet from Vienna to Amsterdam has been stopped for an hour in Würzburg. It was also the first time since the end of August that the Nightjet arrived on time in Amsterdam. The additional stop may have helped!

 

[miklcct]

I hate the idea of BST all year round, i live in Merseyside & sunrise would be 9.30am in January, & still after 9am in February if BST all year round, & i'm not a nine to fiver either, or eight to four either so i take offence at that notion.

I highly prefer staying at GMT all year round. I don't want really the sunrise to be after 9 in the winter, and I don't like the sunset to be after 21 in the summer also.

 

[Ken H]

Managing transatlantic airline schedules must be a nightmare as the US and canada change their clocks on different days to Europe

 

[kieron]

The Bering Sea is at the north end of the Pacific. Åland is in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland.

Sorry, yes, I meant the Baltic Sea. The Bering Sea has a completely different longitude.

 

[JN114]

Managing transatlantic airline schedules must be a nightmare as the US and canada change their clocks on different days to Europe

Generally I thought the aviation world just ran on UTC for this very reason?

 

[Grumbler]

Generally I thought the aviation world just ran on UTC for this very reason?

Published times are always local. The changes required by switching to and from DST has various knock-on effects, e.g. connections having to be replanned.

 

[2192]

1. A sleep expert speaking on BBC Radio 4 Sunday lunchtime said there are more heart attacks after clocks change in March, because people arn't getting enough sleep. (And correspondingly less in October).
2. Part of the year children are going to have to travel one way to school in darkness. It is better that this be in the morning when they are awake and alert, and less likely to have road accidents, than at the end of the school day when they are tired.
3. As a cyclist when I biked to work I felt most vulnerable in the week after clocks changed, as motorists were disorientated, and less likely to see me.

I would like clocks changing abolished. I don't mind if we adopt GMT or BST.

 

[DelW]

2. Part of the year children are going to have to travel one way to school in darkness. It is better that this be in the morning when they are awake and alert, and less likely to have road accidents, than at the end of the school day when they are tired.

In my recollection from the time, that was not what was actually experienced when British Standard Time (= year round summer time) was introduced in the late 1960s. The number of accidents involving schoolchildren in the dark mornings was one of the drivers for its abolition a few years later.

 

[Shrop]

Is anyone still watching this thread? I've just found it and wondered how many people are aware of the shift in the daylight time between mid November and mid February? I'm not talking about the clock change here. In mid November the sun rises at 7.30am and it sets at 4.20pm. In mid February it also rises at 7.30am, but it sets an hour later, at 5.20pm, and there is no clock change involved. I guess some people already know this, but I guess there are a lot more who don't!

 

[Falcon1200]

Funnily enough I was just thinking about it, because typing now at 0830 in the West of Scotland I still need the lights on to see the keyboard ! There is a noticeable difference in the evening however, Sunday afternoon was sunny and it was still daylight at 1630. Spring can't be far away now.....

 

[Grumbler]

Is anyone still watching this thread? I've just found it and wondered how many people are aware of the shift in the daylight time between mid November and mid February? I'm not talking about the clock change here. In mid November the sun rises at 7.30am and it sets at 4.20pm. In mid February it also rises at 7.30am, but it sets an hour later, at 5.20pm, and there is no clock change involved. I guess some people already know this, but I guess there are a lot more who don't!

An excellent resource is https://www.timeanddate.com/