MODERN SERVICE SYSTEM

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24768, 8 January 1946, Page 4

MODERN SERVICE SYSTEM

RAILWAY REFRESHMENT ROOMS “ The Press ” Special Service AUCKLAND, January 7. An improved system of serving travellers at railway refreshment rooms is-being introduced throughout New Zealand by the Railways Department, and at three South Island stations is already* operating with outstanding success. The principal improvement in the new system is that the refreshment staff, instead of moving from one passenger to another, serves each person from the same position behind the counter, each girl having every type of refreshment on sale, and change, in front of her. The three refreshment rooms where the new method is now working, at Ashburton, Waipara, and Kaikoura, now handle 50 per cent, more people in the same time as before and with less staff.

Refreshment rooms where this system has been brought into use are at the same time being modernised. The counters are remodelled on up-to-date lines, and sandwiches, cakes, and other refreshments are on display in glasscovered cubicles and can be selected by customers. Every girl serving has tea. and coffee by the cubicles she is serving from, and movement behind the counter, as was formerly necessary to reach many lines, is eliminated. The new system, popularly known as the “up and over” service, will handle 600 people in seven minutes.