Today’s Newswire, in connection with the hurricane-related closures of rail lines, referred to Amtrak as “extending truncated service”.
[%-)]
Sorry, couldn’t resist! I’m sure it was copied from an Amtrak source–our Trains editors wouldn’t have put it quite that way!
What did he say? [?]
Dictionary sez: shorten by possibly cutting off, so does this mean Amtrak extended no service?
Well Duh! Unless Amtrak has subs…
Moo to this one!
Truncated in this case means cutting back from the scheduled endpoint. To wit, the “City of New Orleans” was truncated from a Chicago-New Orleans to Chicago-Memphis run. Extending truncated service could mean moving the turnaround point from Memphis to Jackson, MS. The service will still be truncated (it still doesn’t reach New Orleans) but will extend beyond the previous turnaround point.
Or, more likely, they extended the duration of the truncated service.
But there has to be a better way of saying it!