The Austrian national railways (ÖBB) has announced that its night service trains will take an extra hour to complete their journeys in the early hours of Sunday morning, but should arrive on time.
At exactly 3am, all clocks connected to the ÖBB network will be frozen for sixty minutes — and eleven trains that are operating at this time will remain parked in stations.
"For travelers in these night trains there will be a special advantage: they will enjoy another hour of sleep," said the railway operator in a press release.
Throughout Austria, the ÖBB has 3,700 electronic clocks in use. They are controlled by pulses emitted from a central time source. During the one hour period after 3am, time progression will be stopped, with all these clocks remaining fixed at three o'clock.
After one hour, the pulses are sent again, and the hands move on. And railway time will be frozen and unfrozen, without needing the aid of a TARDIS.
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