THE MAIN TRUNK TIME TABLE

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 168, 15 July 1908, Page 4

THE MAIN TRUNK TIME TABLE

. As the appointed time for the completion -of .the Main Trunk line rapidly approaches, the arrangement of tie timeta.ble becomes a matter "of public interest to the Dominion in general, and" to- Auckland in particular. As of the ' termini of the line, Auckland is naturally concerned more than .most of. the intermediate stopping-places in the selection of suitable hours for the arrival and departure of the through express; and we are glad to be able to say that the latest suggestions put forward by the Minister for Railways on this subject appear to be generally satisfactory. Our readers may remember that some months ago when the matter was first publicly discussed a provisional time-table was semi-officially suggested that would have meant landing the train passengers at Auckland and Wellington somewhere about miidnight. The countless inconveniences arising from such an arrangement are obvious enough; indeed, it is almost incredible that the railway authorities should have seriously contemplated a course that would entail a maximum cf discomfort and expense for passengers and tourists, with a minimum of efficiency and popularity for the service. However, the heads of the Railway Department seem to have realised in time how impracticable such a proposal would be; and Mr. Hall-Jones now indicates that the time-table will be arranged in an entirely different way. By the southern express passengers will leave Auckland at 8.30 p.m., arriving at Wellington at 3.30 p.m. on the next day, and reaching Invercargill at 9.30 p.m. on the third day. By the northern express they will leave Invercargill at 7.10 a.m., connect with Wellington by 9 a.m. on the folio-w----ing day, and arrive in Auckland by 7.15 a.m. on the third morning. It will be observed that according to this scheme, there will be no transhipping at inconvenient hours, and no arrival at either terminus at any impossible time of the night. So far as Auckland is concerned, it is certainly a disadvantage that both trips will be- run through our district in darkness. But we cannot expect to get everything we would like out of a compromise between so many conflicting claims and considerations, and so long as the absurdity of reaching either Wellington or the two termini of the line at some unspeakably inconvenient hour of tho night or morning is avoided, we think that the proposed scheme will meet with the public requirements both as to com-