Originally Posted by
Rainboe
I don't know how some of the locos do 25 minute turnarounds.
By some very close Operational Research into what is needed, in what sequence, and then ensuring all are trained and work to detailed procedures. The credit for devising this approach is often given to Southwest Airlines in the USA, but in fact Southwest learned the skill from PSA, a California internal airline of the 1960s-80s.
There are also some poor procedures to facilitate this - for example on Ryanair I have experienced the catering being left off because there weren't the couple of minutes remaining to load it, a typical example of "we could run the airline efficiently if it weren't for the passengers". When this was described to us I said I hoped a more professional approach had been taken with the fuel, which earned me a frosty stare ......
Another factor behind some lo-cos short turnround times is that they have generous scheduled block times, and thus it is normal for them to arrive slightly early. It really is the same thing if you schedule a block time of 1:00 followed by a 30-minute turnround, or 1:10 followed by a 20-minute turnround.