HOLIDAYS BY RAIL

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 150, 22 December 1938, Page 10

HOLIDAYS BY RAIL

ALL IN READINESS

VALUE OF NEW STATION

Travel pleasure is greatly enhanced by facile transport arrangements and the thousands who will leave Wellington on Christmas Eve are now finding the value of the new railway station, with facilities of all sorts which have been doubly appreciated by those who have done their booking recently. Though the facilities have not been greatly added to since last Christmas, people are finding that it takes less of their time to make the necessary provisions for rail travel, and this is due, quite apart from the fact that the entire staff in charge of booking, luggage, and reservations has worked together long - enough to make . full cooperation possible, to the greater ease in operating the station yard due to improvements.

There are increased facilities for handling trains, and the "hiving off" of the Johnsonville passenger traffic from the Main Trunk line, the advantages now given by the duplication of the track to Tawa Flat at this end, and the extension of the duplication from Frankton to Huntly and from Papakura to Auckland at the other, all facilitate the extra movement of trains over what were the most congested sections of the line. As with the clerical staff in the station, there has come more experience in handling the trains in Wellington yard under the new conditions. LITTLE CONFUSION LIKELY. The public itself knows its way about better, and is making fuller use of facilities for serving themselves where possible. Especially in the matter of information the loud-speaker system has proved most useful. The early booking has been of great assistance to the Department in the compilation of trains to insure the best use of the rolling stock. Locomotive power is greater, owing to the increased number of available X engines, and the new second-class carriages are larger and hold more passengers. The public has learned to know its platforms for all trains, and though tomorrow is expected to be a record busy day, a large number of people having left their bookings late owing to private uncertainties, there is every indication that there will be little confusion. Many small improvements have been introduced since last Christmas in tha luggage arrangements, which are now exceedingly simple, but complicated, as far as the staff is concerned, chiefly by the habit of leaving old labels all over trunks and suitcases.

Notwithstanding that the extra number of passenger trains leaving for the holidays is a record, there was no sign of confusion at the station today, but rather an indication that the biggest crowd ever to leave Wellington by rail over the holidays will do so in comfort under an excellent system.