Official Solution:
Most of AmTrans' weekly trains travel to and from Harcourt Terminal, a heavily trafficked train station. AmTrans depends for its success on running trains in all types of weather and punctual arrivals, and is consequently planning to replace half of its current trains with bullet trains, which can operate regardless of weather conditions and which can travel at twice the speed of AmTrans' current trains.
Which of the following, if true, could present the most serious disadvantage for AmTrans in replacing its current trains with bullet trains?
A. Bullet trains would enable AmTrans to run trains in weather conditions that its current trains cannot operate in.
B. The cost of manufacturing improvised version of AmTrans' current trains so that they could travel at twice the speed they currently do is expected to decline over the next several years.
C. The ability of the bullet trains to travel at twice the speed of current trains would enable AmTrans to eliminate the ticket refunds currently provided to passengers on trains more than 20 minutes late.
D. None of AmTrans' competitors that use Harcourt Terminal are considering buying bullet trains.
E. When bullet trains leave stations at high speeds, the resulting heat and friction on the tracks delays arriving trains.
A train company operates in and out of a heavily trafficked train station many times a week. Because the train company's success depends on operating in all types of weather and on-time arrivals, it plans to replace its current trains with bullet trains, the design of which will both allow them to operate in all types of weather and travel at twice the speed of AmTrans' current trains.
Since it is given that bullet trains provide the ability to operate in all types of weather and travel at twice the speed of AmTrans' current trains, what could be a disadvantage of the proposed plan? What if the use of the particular train somehow contributed to an inability to operate in all weather conditions or to late arrivals? While the bullet trains' design enables them to operate in all types of weather, it also contributes to conductors not being able to align the trains with platforms easily. Since the train company prides itself on on-time arrivals and trains that are difficult to align with platforms contribute to late arrivals, this design flaw will ultimately hinder AmTrans' effort to provide on-time arrivals, as well as its success. Choice A says that bullet trains would allow AmTrans to operate in weather its current trains are unable to handle. The ability to operate in weather its current trains are unable to handle would be an advantage.
Choice B states that the cost of manufacturing improvised version of AmTrans' current trains so that they would be able to travel at twice the speed they currently can is expected to decline over the next several years. The decline in the cost of manufacturing the current trains to travel at twice the speed they can now might make the plan to adopt bullet trains seem less pressing, but lower costs for making the current trains so that they are able to travel faster would not diminish the advantage of trains that would travel faster in the first place.
Choice C says that the ability of bullet trains to travel faster would allow AmTrans to eliminate the ticket refunds currently given to passengers on trains that arrive more than 20 minutes late. The ability to eliminate ticket refunds is an advantage to the train company, and the loss of refunds will not upset passengers whose aim in riding AmTrans' trains is to arrive on time.
Choice D states that none of AmTrans' competitors that use Harcourt Terminal are thinking of buying bullet trains. The decisions made by other train companies are irrelevant to the plan.
Choice E states that bullet trains can delay the arrivals of other trains. Because the prompt states that AmTrans' success is dependent on
punctual arrivals, this choice implies that the adoption of bullet trains may undermine the chances of this success, thus weakening the overall argument.
Answer: E
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