HUTT VALLEY TRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 45, 23 February 1939, Page 10

HUTT VALLEY TRAINS

NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT

(To the Editor.) Sir.—lt ,' makes highly amusing reading for those = whom necessity compels travelling daily on the Hutt Valley trains to notice how the Railway Department always has a ready answer to any complaints made as to the service. Amusing, that'is, up to a point; but it is somewhat exasperating for the unfortunate users of these trains to be told time and again that "the Department is watching the situation" and that "the accommodation .provided is better than that of the suburban services of either Sydney or Melbourne." If the latter is true, then those suburbanites across the Tasman have my sincerest sympathy. The coitiplaint made recently in your columns that the 5.19 4 p,m. Wellingtoh to Waterl66 was overcrowded on a certain date drew forth a reply from the Department that there were 431 passengers on the train and that there was accommodation for 457. Therefore, argues the Department, it was not overcrowded. In the carriages in which the seats are placed longitudinally passengers have the natural habit of taking up more space than that deemed to be sufficient for one person by the Department. Hence the passenger looking for a seat in one of these carriages does not find one, although in the view of the Department the carriage is not fully occupied. L have yet to see a .guard go through a'train and make the sardines move up to fit more closely in their tin. The average passenger, rather than make himself objectionable in* this manner, prefers to stand on the carriage platform, even if he has no right to-be there. Another point \vhich does not seem to worry the Department is the condition of gome of the carriages. When the , Minister of Railways announced, that first-class accommodation was to; be abolished, he talked about the improved second-class accommodation. We have yet to see it, the most uncomfortable of railway carriages apparently' being deemed, good enough for Hutt residents. To take a specific instance. In the good old days when first-class travel was allowed, the train which leaves Waterloo at about ,8.17 a,m. for Wellington usually used to be swept" out before starting. But since -February 1, when firstclass was abolished, this has not been done; the smoking carriages are in a mess every morning, littered with ash, matches,; etc. Second-class passengers apparently do not matter as far as cleanliness arid health are concerned. It is a pity that some of the heads of the Department cannot be induced to see these things for themselves; if they did, there would be less said about the wonderful accommodation provided on the suburban lines.—l am, etc., A VALLEY VICTIM.