HUTT LINE TRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 83, 8 April 1941, Page 6

HUTT LINE TRAINS

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —I desire to bring under review the question of improved car accommodation on Hutt line trains : and to state that for a considerable period carriages of an obsolete type, including 40-year-old suburban cars, have been used. These have upright wooden back-rests in which tour passengers sit facing one another on seats about 12 inches apart, the latter undoubtedly the most uncomfortable cars—for other than short runs—on the Dominion system. These comprise, for the most part, the trains running between Wellington and Upper Hutt. with particular reference to the 8.42 p.m. and 9.31 p.m.. also the 11.15 p.m. services. Surely it is not unreasonable to suggest that newer cars with chair seats and electric lights such as were in use <\ip to) twelve or fifteen years back, as well as th° former first-class units- bo utilised for off-peak and after-theatre suburban trains.—I am. etc.. ■

FREQUENT TRAVELLER

I On referring "Frequent Traveller's" letter to the Railway Department it was ascertained thai when one-class travel was instituted on the Welling-ton-Hutt suburban section many first- ' class cars were retained on the route Subsequently, however, a much heavier demand for rail transport necessitated the provision ot additional train accommodation and the position was met by the withdrawal of a number of cars of small seating capacity and their replacement with cars of greater capacity. Regarding the night trains from Wellington to Upper Hutt, the Department states that the 8.42 p.m. and the 11.15 p.m. trains each has one of the long cars with fixed seats, and that the 9.31 p.m. train contains two such cars. All other cars on these three trains are leather-seated, with reversible seats. For six months of the year all ears on the trains referred to are electrically lighted and steam heated, but during the summer months the cars so equipped are diverted to longer-distance routes. The Railway Department had planned improvements of the carriage accommodation i on one-class sections, but progress on j new construction is greatly restricted j lby war conditions.]