SEATING ACCOMMODATION ON SUBURBAN TRAINS

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 287, 4 September 1928, Page 13

SEATING ACCOMMODATION ON SUBURBAN TRAINS

Sir, —I would like to bring under the notice of the Railway Department the matter of insufficient second-cldss accommodation on the Waterloo line. In the morning I board a train at Ava station, which when the railway line is in full working order leaves Waterloo at 7.55 a.m., but since the washouts this train has left at 5.16 a.m. This means that the passengers who usually travel on the ordinary 8.16 a.m. aterloo-Lambton train, and which now does not run until later, rush this train partly because of the second-class seating accommodation is so insufficient and partly because there are two train loads of passengers crammed into one train. There are only two second-class non-smoking carriages on the train, and numbers .of lady passengers stand on the platforms, while others, rather than stand in the cold, have, to accommodate themselves in the smoking carriages.—l am; etc., “TRAVELLER BY RAIL.” Lower Hutt, August 30.

[“The traffic on this line fluctuates at any time and this, of course, lias been particularly marked since the washouts occurred on the Hutt and Petone line, stated an officer of the Railway Department when the above letter was referred to him. “It is, however, the Department’s job to watch these variations in traffic' and make suitable arrangements, even during the awkward time when one only instead of two lines has been available In this area the matter has been carefully watched, and when extra accommodation has been found necessary this has been provided. Since Thursday last an extra second-class car has been provided on the Waterloo-Lambton train to which ‘Traveller by Rail’ refers, and this will remain oh the service as long as it is found necessary.”]