Those Japanese; they’re so polite. Officials at Toky’s Tsukuba Express subway line actually issued an apology to customers when one of their trains recently left the station 20 seconds- yes 20 SECONDS- ahead of schedule. According to NPR, after passengers had boarded, the crew didn’t check the time and departed early.
“We deeply apologize for the severe inconvenience imposed upon our customers,” the Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company said in an online posting, despite not receiving any complaints about the “incident.” It added that the train’s crew has been spoken to. The next train arrived just four minutes later so anyone who may have missed the first one due to the early departure wouldn’t have had to wait long to catch the next one.