Few years back when I was still flying WN, I was heading back on a weekday
morning and had to catch a train to work, but we lost "our" plane to a different
route because of some equipment issues.

We had to wait 30 minutes for another inbound flight. When we boarded.. I
told the captain that I had a train to catch.. he goes "lets see what we can do"

Not sure if they did it for me.. or in general, but they managed to shave the
total gate-to-gate time from 1hr 05 minutes to
about 35 minutes. And I made my train.

so I guess it like a taxi service.. but I think it works out for the better
overall.

Imagine.. if they had taken away your aircraft for the earlier flight... and left
you stranded for few more hours.. or may be a day?