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Nominally means “in name only”. Did you intend to use a word with a different meaning?

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/nominally



Sorry, I intended to explain that later in the comment, but got distracted and then just submitted without re-reading.

The flight time is nominally ~2.5 hours, but many/most planes leave late, meaning the actual flight time for the passenger (time between scheduled departure, and actual arrival) is >3 hours.

And airport security and boarding takes longer than train security and boarding. So the time saving isn't all that much vs. the fast train.


If you look only at the stated (=named) departure and arrival times, the plane looks much faster (nominally). If you consider that you need to be at the airport at least 1h before departure, and frequently airports are outside the city centre while train stations are in the city centre, that nominal advantage shrinks considerably.

The usage seems quite right here.


https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nominal#Adjective

>Insignificantly small; trifling.


Do you think that accurately describes the difference between 2.5 hours and 4.5-5.5 hours?


A flight time of 2.5 hrs is realistically 4.5 hours when you add in security, boarding, deboarding, getting a taxi on the other end...


Yup, except:

- (in plane's favour) taxi lines at train stations in Beijing are much longer than those at the airport

- (in train's favour) domestic flights in China are often delayed by 30+ mins




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