On the night from Saturday to Sunday we switch to winter time, which means that we move the clocks from 3:00 to 2:00. What will Warsaw do with the extra hour? – Night buses and the metro will have additional trips, city guards will be paid for overtime work, and the clock on the tower of the Palace of Culture and Science will stop for an hour. The worst impact of this change will be the seals in the capital’s zoo – predicts the city hall.
According to the capital’s officials, next Sunday, when the time is changed, the clock at the Palace of Culture and Science will automatically stop at 2:00. And exactly an hour later – the synchronization is monitored by the GPS system – it will start again and it will be 2:00 a.m. winter time. The entire process, as officials describe, takes place without human intervention.
Split buses
We can also learn from the announcement what impact the time change has on night bus services.
“Passengers will not notice this – buses will depart at the times specified in the timetable. But this requires a lot of logistics from the Public Transport Authority. Buses between 2:00 a.m. and 3:00 a.m. will arrive at the same stops twice. The first time will be at 2:00 a.m. summer time, and an hour later at 2 a.m. winter time. Since this night is in fact one hour longer, ZTM must ‘add’ one trip in the case of buses leaving every hour, and two trips in the case of buses leaving every half hour,” informs the city hall.
Guards on overtime
At night, city guards will patrol the city streets. Their twelve-hour shift (from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) will last 13 hours. Guards will receive additional pay for one overtime hour. Similarly with subway drivers. An eight-hour night shift will last nine hours. Train drivers will work one hour longer and, according to the city hall, they will receive remuneration for the extra hour of work.
“Feeding times shifted by an hour will undoubtedly be noticed by seals”
Further, officials indicate that the circadian rhythm will also change for animals in the zoo. Garden workers will change the settings of time lights or sprinklers (in terrariums, aquariums, aviaries, etc.), and the animals will gradually switch to a different daily rhythm. “The feeding times that have been shifted by an hour will undoubtedly be noticed by the seals! They are one of the few in the ZOO who are fed for show, i.e. at fixed hours – always at 10.00 and 14.30. Employees expect that they will be fed for several days.kThey arrived at the show feeding site an hour earlier,” officials describe in the release.
Street lamps turn on and off at a specific time, depending on the time of sunset and sunrise. Every day both of these moments shift by 1-2 minutes. The table of the Municipal Roads Authority takes into account the time change. On the last day before the change, the lights will be on between 5:25 p.m. and 7:16 a.m. And after the change – from 16.23 to 6.18.
Main photo source: UM Warsaw