RAILWAY EXCURSION SEATS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 1, 2 January 1943, Page 4

RAILWAY EXCURSION SEATS

(To the Editor.) Sir,—Can the Railway Department give a satisfactory answer as to the reason why they cannot cope with the handling of the traffic on the 9 a.m. Sunday excursion train to Palmerston North. I travel to Paraparaumu by this train every Sunday. As it is impossible to book a seat, I make a practice of being at the station early, about 8 a.m. This practice has worked very well until recently, when apparently some higher-up official decided things were running too smoothly, so< altered them. Instead of being able to pass on to the train comfortably, we were kept standing outside the locked barrier from 8 a.m. to 8.45 a.m. until hundreds of people were jammed about the gates, to the great discomfort and danger of those near the iron grille. Last Sunday was worse than ever. Again the gates were kept shut, and hundreds of intending passengers blocked the station. People were jammed against the gates and injured. At 8.35 a.m. a porter on duty at the gates called out that those with reserved seats.could pass through. About six people in the front were able to get in, but after that it was impossible for any more to get through the crowd. The crush became worse; women with babies in their arms had a difficult job holding them high in the air so-that they would not be injured. The porteress at the gate explained that the reason why the reserved seat holders had to go on first was that other travellers removed the reserved tickets and claimed the seats. At 8.45 a.m. we were allowed on; I went straight up towards the front of the train. In one carriage (G) I found plenty of unreserved seats. Within two minutes there was not an unoccupied seat on the train. Then a young soldier came to me and said: "Excuse me, but I think you are in my seat." He produced his tickets, Nos. 26 and 27, so I immediately gave up the seats. My wife and I had to stand. My daughter and another young woman had the same experience. They were in the same carriage. Now, Sir, I was the first person in the carriage and I can say definitely that there were no reserved tickets on the seats in question. What is the remedy? Firstly, there should be no reserved seats on an excursion train to Palmerston North. If we must have some reserves, then limit them to, say, four carriages and mark them clearly. Under no circumstances should seats be reserved throughout the train. Allow the passengers to board the train when they arrive at the station, instead of keeping them outside the gates like a lot of cattle. —I am, etc., OBSERVER. Commenting on this letter, the Railway Department states that whilst urgent war requirements rendered it impossible on the date in question to run an extra train, the situation now permits the provision on Sunday, January 3, of a train at 8.30 a.m., which will run to Otaki, thus relieving the subsequent Palmerston North excursion trains of short-distance passengers. Whilst regretting any inconvenience to "Observer," it is stated that on the occasion referred to, passengers were admitted from 8.30 a.m. until approximately 8.45, when the gates were again closed for a few minutes to permit a check-up on seating accommodation. Another 70 passengers were then admitted and those remaining were diverted to the second (9.20 a.m.) train, the gates being opened at 9.0 a.m. Unticketed seats m carriage G were unreserved seats, and it is considered most likely that the reserved seat tickets shown to 'Observer" were in respect of seats of the same numbers but in another carriage, if not in the second train. I — I