MANNING THE LIMITED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 258, 31 October 1925, Page 11

MANNING THE LIMITED.

: TWO CREWS INSTEAD OF THREE. PROTEST FROM THE LOCO. MEN. (By Telegraph.— Special to "Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. , The general executive of the New Zealand Locomotive Engineers, Firemen ; and Cleaners' Association passed the following resolution of protest against the new schedule for drivers and firemen on the Limited: "That the proposed hours and mileage for locomotive men. being introduced by the locomotive department of two sets of two men on the Limited express between Auckland and Wellington, in place of three as at present, is beyond the physical endurance of the men concerned, and is therefore against public safety, and this association objects to the introduction of such system, which is being done in order to get more mileage out of the engines. 'With the constant pinpricking of the traffic department by way of 'Please explains' why time is not made up on such trains, and where men have been asked to explain loss of one minute between certain stations, and the strain that is thrown on men by ill-considered time-tables, together with the signals to be observed, speed limits, tablet regulations, and the dangerous country run over, the Department, in the interests of the public, should be reducing instead of increasing mileage for express men. No other country in the world demands so much of their locomotive men as the New Zealand Railway Board requires with such a high piston speed. The proposal is sacrificing public safety and the safety of the locomotive men, in order to get increased .mileage from the engines."