Springfield telephone

Press, 19 October 1978, Page 12

Springfield telephone

Sir, —I had reason to visit the Springfield railway station last night and as I passed the telephone booth a notice caught my eye. “This telephone will be removed shortly,” it said. What earthly reason could be used for removing this facility that serves not only travellers on the trains and buses but the residents of that part of Springfield?—Yours, etc. W. E. WOODS. October 16, 1968.

[The Christchurch Post Office’s regional engineer (Mr E. L. McKechie) replies: “This is a telephone we are planning to remove, and this is being done mainly because of the economics. It has been

returning less than 82 a month. There is another public telephone in Springfield, at the Post Office on the main road, which gets more use. It is only a couple of blocks away from the railway station. The railway station telephone is used only by people using the railcar — and not many of them. Before we do this we go to some lengths to establish who uses a public telephone. Telephone density in Springfield is 100 per cent. Every home in Springfield has its own telephone. If there is a low density, we maintain the public telephone. But we do establish whether the telephone is for local use, or for the travelling public. In this case it is clearly for the travelling public, and they have a public telephone available on the main road.”]