SUNDAY TRAINS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3043, 2 April 1917, Page 6

SUNDAY TRAINS

EFFECT OF DISCONTINUANCE 1 . " ■. i OPINIONS OF SOLDIERS AND J ' CIVILIANS .. . r . x I "PENALISING THE SOLDIER" ■ t . t The proposal, embodied in'tho gen- 1 eral scneuie of curtailment of train < services, to discontinue running troop 1 trains, as well as civilian trains on ' Sundays, is being freely discussed in the training camps at Trentham and Featherston. All ranks feel that the soldiers who are going to light tho Em- i pire's battles should not be penalised I by the new order of things. ( "I understood that it was the ( 'luxury services' that were to bo cut < out," an officer said. "One could ; hardly call a Sunday troop train or * an evening troop train to the city a I luxury service. It is a most serious ; matter for men in training, who are ■ unable to find accommodation for their ! 'relatives near the. camps, and take ad- - vantage, of the Sundays, to visit the city and spend a few hours with their i relatives:" • The circumstances regarding the week-cud trains are somewhat different in.tho two camps, but the discontinuance of Sunday troop' trains would prevent men in either of them from visiting, the city. In Trentham camp week-end leave is not granted except in special cases. Officers and men get evening leave on certain days, Saturday afternoon and evening leave occasionally, and Sunday leave at regular • intervals. .All have to be ,in camp at night. On Sundays the troop train leaves the camp at about two o'clock, and leaves Wellington, 011 the return trip . at a quarter-past- nine _ o'clock. Civilians are" absolutely forbidden to travel on troop trains. The soldiers 1 claim that, even if tho ordinary passenger trains are taken off, the soldiers' troop trains should be allowed to run. Thero is another view of the question,, however. The three Sunday afternoon 1 trains which leave Lambkin Station for Upper Hutt and Trentham carry ' hundreds of visitors to the camp, in fact, nearly all the passengers by them are bound for Trentham. The ma-' jority of the troops spend Sunday in camp, the one troop train carrying up a few jhundred men, and their relatives and. friend? travel out to see them. Taking these trains off will, it is urged, hurt the more than the civilians. x ; Featherston Camp is too far away for such services as are run to Trentham to be run to the Wairarapa camp. Weekend leave is a feature .of Featherston. Every Saturday 1000 officers and men. are carried in two troop trains to Wellington'. Tho trains leave Wellington on the return run on. Sunday evening. The outting out of these trains, it is pointed out, will make it an impossibility for soldiers in training at Fea- | . therston to visit relatives in Wellington at all. As at Trentham, the accommodation in the vicinity of the oamp is exceedingly limited. Twice a week evening trains run from the camp to Masterton and towns en -route. But in the Southern Wairarapa towns it is difficult to get board! and lodging or to rent houses or rooms, so that the soldiers' relatives cannot always find a; resting place there. ' v ■ - Make the Rents Rise, "If they .take off the Sunday troop trains,"-a soldier said, "it will, make the rents near the oamps.go up with a jump.: We'll all want to get rooms near the camps for our wives, so that • we can spend Sunday with them occa- ' sionally. If the new order of things ' comes into force, you'll have the cheer- | ful picture of the soldier killing time on Sundays r in the oamps, while his 1 wife kills time In Wellington. No Sunday trains, or after' 7 o'clock on week days, sounds like a chapter out of the dark ages when they rang the curfew Dell." _ A civilian, to whom the discontinuance of Sunday trains, would make not : a tittle of difference, predicted a tremendous motor . traffic on the Hutt Road on Sundays. As.it is, with half-a-dozen trains each way between Upper Hutt and Wellington, a number of motor lorries fitted with seats take crowds of passengers to Upper Hutt and Akatarawa every Sund'ay. "There will be an enormous increase in this traffio," he said. : "It will take more than the butting out of Sunday, trains to stop people going to see the , soldiers or soldiers coming in to see them, while there are' motors available." ' A taxi-driver who >vas interviewed agreed that if tho Sunday trains and ovening trains were discontinued. between the city and Trentham "it would mean an increased traffic on the roads. > "Nineteen miles is nothing to a motor," he said. "We can. make the trip without effort in 40 minutes." '■ Concerning the effect of the npw order upon the traffic that is not connected with,the camp, there is a good deal'being said by travellers on theHutt line. Most of them decline to believe that the Department would .take such a step as to discontinue all Sunday ,trains. Concerning the week-day services and their curtailment, attention has been drawn to the fact that the trainß for Upper Hutt run in pairs, in close proximity as to time, with long intervals. between each pair. There is a 9 a.m. and a 10 a.m. from Lambton. Then thero is no train till 1120 'p.m. Another/follows at'2.lo p.m. The next train is the 4.25. It is followed by the 1 5.12 and the 6.14. After that there is not another till 10.35 pi.m. On Saturdays the bunching is even more notice- J. able. After the 10 a.m. train there is j a hiatus till the 12.15 goes. This is followed % the 1.12 and the 1.20! Between 1.20' and 4.25 no train leaves for Upper Hutt: Then there is the 6.12 and the .7 p.m., the 10.35, and 11.15 p.m. On the inward run there is a train from-"Upper Hutt at 7-.50 a.m. and another at 8.37 a.m. During the day they run at intervals of about two hours till 6.40 p.m., the train leaving at that time'being the last for the day, except on Saturday. While. some : people hold that a few of the trains that are bunched oould be done without; the majority consider that this suburban line is too busy, with'its present service, to stand any curtailment at. all, especially as much of the traffic is connected with, the camps. "Give the men in camp a fair spin," was the plea of a civilian, which was echoed by a dozen others.' By paying an extra shilling, if necessary—it is not always demanded save on- the 10.35 p.m. from Lambton—the soTdiers are allowed to uso the ordinary trains. This they do to a considerable extent; 1 and it is difficult to see how the sor- 1 vices 011 the lines serving Trentham ' and Featherston Camps can be 1 interfered with, without the soldiers being . directly affected to-an even greater extent than' civilians. "It simply means that the only opportunity for visiting Wellington will , be on Saturdays," said a soldier. t With 5000 troops in Trentham it would j ] be impossible to' carry the men in and out ill one ovening. Featherston tried the Saturday troon trains, and found ■ the'm a failure. They arrived in town about- 5 or 6 o'clock, and left again at 10., The men spent Sunday resting after their strenuous holiday. —'-Suburban Dwellers. 1 ' One of the proposals stated by the 1 Minister on Saturday is that tho sub- 1

urban lines, 'except on Saturdays, shall be "closed before 7 p.m. HO., facilities for travel being given after that time." If this change is made, many workers, shop-assistants, and business people who live at I'otono and Hutt will bo placed in a most difficult position. Apparently they must • find homes in tho city or somewhere on the tram routes, since if thoy remain in tho Hutt valley they will have no means of reaching their Jiomcs after working overtime or ,on late shopping niglit (Friday). Tho fact that workers' weekly tickets are to be retained, although ordinary commutation tickets are to be suspended, appears to indicate that tho Government did not intend to embarrass the workers. But it is stated to be a fact that some hundreds of workers find it ncccssary at present to use tho evening trains on the Wellington-Hutt line. A One-shift Basis of Working. The opinion of tho Government, as stated by the Minister of Railways, is that tho time has arrived when tbe conveniences and even tho necessities' of individuals and districts must give way before the needs of the Empire. If the Department is to part with tho First Division men who nave been drawn in the ballot already, it must arrange a big reduction of services; The retention of one-nr two Sunday trains, for example, would involve keeping on duty a full staff, and then providing another day of rest elsewhere in the week; tile running of even a few late trains will make it impossible to work the railways on a oneshift, basis.