HUTT VALLEY TRAIN SERVICE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 683, 7 December 1909, Page 8

HUTT VALLEY TRAIN SERVICE.

Shy—l see in to-day's issue a complaint from a suburban resident re the proposal of tho Railway Department to dispatch the 7.43 from Upper Hutt at an earlier hour than the present. I have travelled oh this train as a season ticket holder for tho last threo years, and from my ; observations it. appears that, tho source of tho trouble is deficient ongino power and want of proper arrangements to save time. Pho engines in use were bnilt in the 'seventies last century, and no doubt fulfilled tho then existing requirements for dragging light mixed trains and goods trains very satisfactorily. But conditions arc quite changed now. The suburban resident requires quick dispatch, and those obsolete machines are quite, unablo to handlo tho present heavy trains, as suburban frame should be handled. The Department has new powerful engines on the Manawatu line, and anyone can seo thorn. dragging empty goods trucks along that line, but on the Hutt line, where the traffic requires engines which can get into their full -running speed in a very short time after starring, we are annoyed by crawling behind antiquated machinery whioh is just able. to. attain a decent speed as the train approaches Petone. The English railway managers obtain enginea specially built to obtain a quick rate of speed in the shortest possible distance, to give satisfactory results in suburban traffic;.but here the Department can only suggest adding another 15 minutes to tho already objectionably long time taken to get through this short distance. There is not a word said abont.saving time. To condense the matter, it has always appeared to me that the Department ought to put fully-powered engines on to the : trains carrying business people and workmen both to work and also back home. That waste of time which takes place every morning at the Lower. .Hutt could be obviated if the Department were to place the extra carriages on a line where Lower Hutt passengers could take their seats at once, instead of. having to wait on the platform till the extra carriages are shunted up. after the arrival of the 7.43 from_ the Upper Hutt. This can be done, as there is always a spare engine at the Lower Hutt when the 7.43 arrives. Of. course, the official mind will say, "This can't be done," but that doesn't alter the facts.—l am, etc., ■ SECOND-CLASS KETUEN, LOWER HUTT. '..

Sir,—A correspondent in this morning's issue says, he is informed by the Railway Department that should; tho present 7.43 down train be continued it will ■ henceforth arrive in Wellington eight minutes later than it does now.' ' Lbst Wednesday morning they sent 'an official through the, train to threaten us—as above that if we kicked against the proposed earlier service we should be punished by having our existing service inade worse instead of better. No doubt the' Department would like that we should, make no fuss, but tamely submit to whatever is provided for us. There is nothing in their-preamble that the alternative is "to suit tho convenience of business people." The' business people concerned emphatically don't 1 want it; they only ask to; be let alone. Instead, "it is that the convenience of—shall .y>*o say—three ; hundred families between Mungaroa.-and Stokes's Valley is to.be ignored in order that tho Department may fit in some alterations in their Wai" rarapa running.. And, as we know,. the Wairara P' r '- I folk also are up in arms .against the meddlesome attentions of the Department. ■ We have a very good train in the present '•*3 from/Upper Hutt; it might be berter, no doubt,- but it suits the. fanners, it suits the business people who have come into tho district, , and -it apparently suits, a few. clerks and typistes who travel by . it. But for your correspondent's ."Upper-Valley-dwelling- . shopman, he does not exist at present; and as to himself, who apparently must bo at 'his post later, than, nine,' tho district is not yet ready for him. ', I "selfishly refuse, on behalf of myself and say two score -of daily' travellers; on behalf, t<io, of perliaps'as 'niahy cow-' milkers along the line who already, rise not later .than 4,30, to abate my slumbers by half-afl-hour. on three hundred : days of , the year, for the. pleasure of, his, company. As population, grows arid agitates we shall get patter railway facilities that will no .doubt suit him. . .■ 1 - 'Ji k.jVe.often known the 7.43,-when considerably .delayed by. handling'horses at Trentham or some.such reaison,. slip down to the Hutt at quite an express gait. . Now,' if the running time were thus permanently'■accelerated,' • J v «, minutes-.of that; uncalled-for *?, i' tbe. Hutt struck .off, it should be possible to readr'. Wellington : before"' 9 : o'olobk, eyoh'should; it be necessary-to sandwich in an- f o&er grossing with - a Wairarapa*'train. Why Cannot this be done?—l am, etc.', • SILVERSTREAM.'