World Scraps the Leap Second; Perth Insists It Has Never Once Been on Time Anyway
Timekeepers' decision 'will make no difference whatsoever' to Stagecoach timetables, bin collections or the Perth station clock.
The Perth station clock tower, which has been informed and does not care. Photo: kitmasterbloke, “The station Clock Tower at Perth”, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
PERTH — The international decision to abolish the leap second, ending the practice of adjusting the world’s clocks by a single second every few years, has been met with a resounding shrug in Perth, where residents say they have been running on “roughly” since records began.
“A second? We lose whole afternoons here,” said Perth station regular Gillian Moir, 58, standing beneath the station clock waiting for a train that had been “approaching” for 25 minutes. “The 8.12 to Edinburgh is a philosophical position, not a time. If the world wants to fight over one second, it should come and wait for a bus on South Street.”
Since 1972, computers, banks and communications networks have had to adjust for the leap second to keep atomic time in step with the Earth’s rotation. Scientists say scrapping it will reduce disruption to critical systems, which Perth residents described as “a lovely thought for other people.”
Local institutions have confirmed they are unaffected. Perth and Kinross Council said bin collections would continue to operate “on Perth Time, which is the scheduled day, give or take a fortnight.” Stagecoach said its buses ran “on a timetable inspired by real events”, while the city’s roadworks confirmed they had “never, at any point, measured themselves in seconds.”
“Honestly, they could’ve given us the leap second,” said one Craigie resident. “We’d have used it. One extra second in bed in January. That’s the closest Perth would ever get to a holiday.”
Physicists note that, without leap seconds, atomic time and solar time will slowly drift apart over the coming centuries. Perth officials say they have already planned for this, and the gap will be addressed in a twelve-week consultation, beginning in 2030, “completely settled.”
The real story: 'The leap second has been canceled' (Seattle Times Oddities, 17 Oct 2026)
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