TRAIN SERVICES.

Evening Star, Issue 17923, 20 March 1922, Page 8

TRAIN SERVICES.

TO THE EDITOtt. Sir,—" Midland" thanks you for obtaining such a delightfully devious reply to his letter of 10th inst. The officer in charge of train running would oblige disgruntled suburbanites by answering the following plain questions, and thus proving the superiority of his intricate detailed knowledge over that of the ignorant man in tho street:— (a) Can the 5.15 Dunedh)-Mosgiel train leaving oh time at 5.15 p.m. without delaying the express one second keep ahead of the express to Wingatui when the express leaves Dunedin at 5.25 p.m? (b) Can he enlighten "Midland" as to why the 10.15 p.m. Mosgiel-Dunedin train on tho same day as tho express incident happened, was held at Mosgiel to allow a race special from Gfore to have the line, when the suburban, had she left Mosgiel on time, could have been in Dunedin at the time the race special passed through Green Island, on which platform " Midland " was waiting for the suburban train?—l am, etc., Midland. March 16. [The answer to tho first of tho above questions is that the responsible officers deem it wise to allow not less than twelve minutes between a stopping and a nonstopping train when the stopping train is ahead. If the through train got away in front ten minutes would suffice for safety. As to tho second question, the facts are that the train from Gore arrived at Mosgiel five minutes before tho suburban train was timed to leave, and, being a through train, she took her proper place. Any delaying of the suburban train was owing to tho race train having to put off horses at Mosgiel.—Ed. E.S.]