AUCKLAND DISTRICT RAILWAYS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 31, 5 February 1910, Page 9

AUCKLAND DISTRICT RAILWAYS.

UNSATISFACTORY TIME-TABLE. (By a Travelling Correspondent.) Throughout the Auckland district from Helensville to Oiiakune, anyone who travels can hear complaints about the present local train services. Starting at Helensville, the first complaint is one of the slowness of the mail trains running between the city and that point. It has been stated by one who ought to know tbat trains take two minutes longer to make the trip now than they did tweny years ago, and besides that there is a constant overloading of trains. As recently as last Monday, the mail train running to Wellsford had to break its load, and take it in two sections to Waikumefe, the grade between Avonrlale and Waikumete proving too stiff for an "A" class engine.

The next complaint is in respect to the suburban running at Auckland, and has been freely discussed through the city papers. It is, however, on the Southern portion of the Auckland section that the present running of the various trains can be most seriously questioned. Even an outsider can ccc that the present service is a most inefficient and inconvenient one. It is not contended that more trains are required, but that the running of some of them should be so altered as to allow paseengers to travel more conveniently between intermediate stations. On the Frankton-Paeroa sections there are three outward trains between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and -none for the rest of the twenty-four houra. A similar thing occurs on the Frankton-Rotorua section, and until Tecently on the Frank-ton-Te Kuiti section.

Looking carefully through the timetable, one assumes that the present 6ervice in connection with the sections mentioned is laid down to suit the running of goods trains from Auckland in the early morning, and nothing but an absolute revision of the running of the present service will bring about a satisfactory state of affairs. The Department cannot surely say that it is good management for trains to be following one another as they do now, and if they contend that the trains are paying well—a fact that Is not disputed—how much more profitable would it be if the same trains were run at times that would enable passengers to go to and from one place to another in any direction in one day. At the present time it is impossible to journey from Frankton to any town on the Rotorua section and back in the one day. That also applies to the towns between Frankton and Te Kuiti until recently, but now there is a goods train leaving Frankton for Southern stations between six and seven in the morning, and permits to travel in the guard's va-n are occasionally given. This train would prove very useful to the settlers between Frankton and Taumarunui, and why the Department does not make it a mixed train it is hard to lep.

The people of the Waikato and upper part of the King Country want early morning trains, running out from Frankton in the morning, and the request is only a reasonable one, and one that could be easily complied with if the Department would take the matter in hand seriously. If the goods for the various districts mentioned ivere assembled at Frankton during tihe night, morning trains carrying goods and passengers could then be dispatched from Frankton, and return in the evening, thereby giving effective services both ■vvaya, besides making a connecting service -with the North Main Trunk express.

Going farther South, there are also adverse comments on the local service between Ohakune and Taumarunui, and the settlers have real good cause for complaint. It is not possible to travel North to any station between Ohakune and Taumarunui and get back in the one day, for the only day train is one ■that leaves Ohakune at 4.10 in the afternoon. The Department may contend that there is not enough traffic to warrant the running of the extra train asked for by the residents of Ohakune and the settlers of the Waimarino district, but it is well known that special trains are running nearly every day between Ohakune and Taumarunui now, and that being so, the Departments would find it difficult to substantiate any such claim. If the present train now leaving Frankton in the morning, and arriving at Taumarunui between two and three o'clock in the afternoon, could be continued on to Ohakune as a mixed train, and return to Taumarunui early next morning in time to catch the 8.10 train to Auckland, it would prove a very convenient and profitable service. Seeing that it is the settler that is most affected by the present service, it is to be hoped that t'ho Department will endeavour to alter the running, and make a more convenient and profitable time-table.