Rail booking

Press, 9 February 1983, Page 22

Rail booking

Sir,—On Saturday, January 15, my daughter sought to obtain a booking at the Picton booking office for travel to Christchurch by train-railcar on Tuesday. January 18. or Wednesday, January 19, only to be told that this could not be done as there was no-one on duty in Christchurch to allocate seats. No doubt Gilbert and Sullivan would have appreciated such a situation but to someone wanting to advise Christchurch friends of their travel arrangements it lacked any humour whatsoever. At a time when the numbers travelling are greater than at any other time of the year, it appears ludicrous to me that the control of seating is held by the office of destination and the terminal of the trip, as well as the office concerned not being manned when other subsidiary offices are open to receive bookings. - Yours, etc.,

H. G. SMITH January 31. 1983.

[Mr R. Campbell, District Traffic Manager of Railways, replies: “Operations within Railways on Saturdays are, like other businesses, carried out on a restricted basis. The booking office at Christchurch Railway Station is open between the hours of 7 a.m. and 12 noon on Saturdays and reservations from other centres are processed during these hours. The booking office at Picton is open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays to cater for passengers on and off the ferries and train ticket sales are also handled during these hours. Were it not for the ferry situation the office at Picton would not be open on Saturdays. It has been found from experience that the centralisation of reservations has provided an efficient over-all system for intending passengers and it is not intended to allocate seats to every station that sells tickets."]