SUBURBANITES' GRIEVANCES

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 7, 8 July 1909, Page 3

SUBURBANITES' GRIEVANCES

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — I was exceedingly pleased to read in The Post the remarks made by ''Progress" re trains bc-tweer> Wellington and Johnsonville, and can endorse every word of same. His claim for a train on Saturdays between 4 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. is a just one, and ouo that must appeal to ail. Residents who \vis>h to stay in town to see a football or cricket match are barred from doing so, as if they do, they have either to leave in time to catch the 4 o'clock train, or wait until 9.30, or walk home over the hills, a distance of some miles. It was quite on the cards that the old Manawatu Railway Company recognised the necessity for this train, and would have run it, had not their existenco been cut short. Another important point which escaped the notice of ' 'Progress" is that the company always stopped the through trains to New Plymouth at Khandallah, and now these trains run right through. Consequently, workmen engaged on jobs on this line between Wellington and Johnsonville cannot reach their work except by the 9.35 a.m. train, unless they leave by the 6.30 a.m. train, which is too early. Again, if residents of Ngaio or Khftndallah wish to go north, say to New Plymouth, they have perforce either to remain in town all night, or get. up at an unearthly hour to get into town by the 7.10 train from Johnsonville. 1 am a, smoker, and selfishly not interested in the accommodation for non-smokers, but I will say that the smoking carriages aro very often uncomfortably overcrowded owing to tha lack of accommodation for non-smokers. The department's reply to "Progress" is too feeble. Take, for instance, its remarks re the crossing of various trains at Ngaio, "the convenience of long-distance passengers on the down trains have to be studied as well as the feelings of those on the up strain." This I do not dispute, but I think the existing difficulty could easily be remedied. The destination of the up train is JohnronviUe, and what is there to prevent the down train crossing the up train at that point instead of at Ngaio, whero we often have to wait from live to twentyseven minutes for the down train? (This down train, by the way, is generally more a goods than a passenger train.) It i would not take tho up train ten minutes I longer to reach Johnsonville. As it is, I Khandallah residents often leave the train at Ngaio and walk home, getting there before the train arrives, rather than fcit in a cold carnage, knowing that their dinners, and wives' tempers, are being spoiled. Men and women who.- have had a hard day's work in town naturally wish to reach home as soop as possible, and I think the department could easily help them to do so. In making such alterations, the department has no out train to consider, there heine none until 6.20 (ifc being the out 5.25 train with which the delay complained of occurs). As to the department's assertion that the punctuality of the New Zealand trains compares favourably with any other system in the world, I am in no position to dispute this, but it is, to my mind, merely dodging the point at issue. If a delay of anything from five to twenty-seven minutes is punctuality, then I don't know what the word means. At present the trains, particularly the 5.25, may leave to time, but it is never certain what time it will reach its destination. I trust, Sir, that this correspondence will result in some improvements in the f-ervice for suburbanites, who have been led to believe that they would receive fome consideration from the department when the Government acquired the line, instead of being treated with less consideration than that shown them by the old company. Trusting that you will find room for this in your paper, while the question is still befoi-e the public. — I am, etc , FIVE-TWENTY-FIVE.