CROWDED TRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 156, 30 December 1944, Page 9

CROWDED TRAINS

HOLD-UP OF VISITORS

P.A. DUNEDIN. Dec. 29. Several hundred North Island visitors who did not book their reservations for the return journey before leaving home are faced with the prospect of having :o prolong their stay in Dunedin. In some cases those concerned are engaged in essential industry, and there is little likelihood of their reaching their home towns in time to commence work on the due dates. Several of the visitors have stated that they were under the impression that they could book their return seats when they made arrangements for the outward journeys, but they say that when they endeavoured to do this at stations in the North Island they were told they could not make^ their return reservations before leaving and that they should make their plans to return when they arrived in Dunedin. An inquiry mad? at the local Government Tourist Office showed -that any visitors without reservations who desired to return home before January 15 would have, to wait at least : two or three days beyond the date originally arranged:for their departure. It had not been easy to make members of the travelling public understand that once the train or steamer service was completely booked it was impossible to do anything about the matter, except where there was the occasional cancellation of. a booking. :