Swiss Train Drivers Get Chocolate For Stopping At The Right Spot
In an attempt to get train drivers to be more precise about where they're stopping the trains, the Swiss Federal Railways will be giving chocolate as a bonus to drivers who stop at exactly the right spots when they bring their trains into the stations.
According to The Local, this is part of a new program to help reduce delays and make the train system more efficient and reliable. Basically, the logic is that if the trains stopped in exactly the same place every time they came into the stations, the locations of the trains' doors could be marked so passengers would know where to wait for the doors. That way, passengers could spread out to different doors and make more room on the platform, instead of everybody cramming into the same place and slowing everything down.
For the project to work, however, the train drivers would have to stop the train in exactly the right spot every time they come in. That's a bit of a bother for the train drivers, who objected to this plan last time someone tried it in 2013. So this time, the railway is offering chocolate as an incentive to drivers who hit their marks.
The new system is being tested in three stations, and if it goes well it could be rolled out across Switzerland.