THE WELLINGTON-AUCKLAND EXPRESS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 214, 4 June 1919, Page 7

THE WELLINGTON-AUCKLAND EXPRESS

Sir,—l was a passenger by the 12.45 above train on Saturday, May 31, and it was the most trying nnd uncomfortable journey by rail, I should imagine, most of tho passengers had ever experienced. Something had gone wrong with the- heating of tho carnages, and from end to end of the long journey,the great majority of the cars were stone-cold. It was a bitter night in the higher latitudes on the Main Trunk, and few of us (if any) slept inoro than n few minutes at a time, for wo wero so intensely cold. Those who already laboured with colds or coughs doubtless added thereto, whilst others, previously free from such, laid up for themselves chills as a result of their never-to-be-forgotten experiences. Surely, Sir, it is possible to test tho heating apparatus before tho train loaves Wellington? And it is what the public have a right to expect. Tho guards did w-hat they, could, and endeavoured to nscertain what was wrong, but without success, and the passengers expressed themselves with great bitterness and indignation throughout the trip. At a time when tho writer was (hat perishingly cold he scarcely knew whether he even possessed legs or feat, he happened to read in Tjtb Dominion, of Saturday, May 31, the full report of the "Farewell' Smoking Concert" to Mr. Hiley, held on Friday, at the Railway Head Offices. Could anything have been more ironical? Here, at this happy function, we read of tho prominent hearts of .the Railway Department saying nice things nbont'each other, and agreeing swerally rn how well the 'Railway Department was being run! .But what a contrast to our own bitter experience! We could nil have wished (Ah! how much we wished it) that Messrs. Hemes, Hiley, nnd M'Villr had all been on that train! And it isn't (unfortunately) the first time it has hapnened. Mav I suggest that of all. the "reforms" (?) hipted nt oh the occasion of the smoke concert, this.reliable heitinT.of the cariages might fitly tale precedence?— Lam, etc., F. J. JEFFERY. June 2, 1919. , ,