Railway Facilities.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 4 August 1921, Page 4

Railway Facilities.

BETTER NEEDED.,

Mr W. B> J'ffild, M.P., has forwarded .the. following fo the v Minister, .of Railwayp,;and,wg have the, 'desire4eff ,-. “It was onlyyesterday .that ; X was discussing with you ,tbe , extension, of ..tbO; ;Buhurbpa . railway,, sorvi.ee .from Plimmgrton, 18 miles from Wellington, to Ppakakariki,, 27 miles. This I have been psking for for, many years, and have introduced .more than one deputation,to Ministers, of Railways on the subject, but .up to the present, .the concession has not been, granted. Curiously •enough, I. have to-day received a letter from a well known resident of. the Manawatu Line, which reads as follows;—‘‘Can you tell me w'hy, although the suburban trains, Wellington to’P&ekakariki run to Paekakariki the surburban fares arc only available as "far as Plimmcrton? I understand that the suburban area in Now Zealand is 20 miles from the chief centres, but seeing that the suburban, trains referred to above go to Paekakariki (27) miles) to stable,.why not extend the limit on this run to Paekakariki and thereby, earp money. These trains are practically empty. from Plimmcrton on when v ..they could be /earning many fares without any additional overhead running costs. It would be hard to estimate what has been .lost, to the Railway during the years these trains have .been running what may. well be termed a dead end of Jen niiles. In any case, Plimmcrton is only 18 miles from Wellington, ,two,miles short of the 20 mile. Jimiti It is just as reasonable that as the nearest station to the 20 mifft limit should, be extended this 1£ miles, as that ,the Railway Department should take 2 niiles off. Wc hear a loud cry for Imore house accommodation for Wellington. Why not give families a chance to live along this route by extending the suburban fares to Paekakariki aud speeding up .the trains leaving Paekakariki at 5.50 a.m. and 7 a.m. and also the trains leaving Wellington at" 5.25 p.m.and 6.24 p.m. lam informed that there are families, whose workers jobs arc in Wellington, anxious to live at Pukerua and Paekakariki (they already own building sites at these places) but the absence of suburban fares makes it prohibitive. I would not, advocate the extension of this service if ,thc trains had to be extended also, but it does, seem unbusinesslike ,to run a train 10 miles, and one might almost say refuse fares. The population along this route has grown by leaps and founds during the last 20 years, notwithstanding the fact that it has been, and is still being, held back by an obsolete railway service. Has anything progressive been done in regard to this service during that time? If ,not. Why not?' You mil, of course, have noted the fact that all the week-day trains from Wellington, which run as far as Plimmerton, continue their journey to Paekakarlki, and that, therefore, there is, as niy correspondent states, no additional cost in carrying on to Paekakariki. Passengers would gladly live beyond Plimmcrton, if the suburban service • were extended. I would draw ■ your attention to another matter, the unfairness of which has been pointed out-already over and over again; name-ly;-that the mileage on the Manawatu Line is calculated either from Lambtpn Station, or Bunny Street, nearly a mile from the Thorndon station, and that, ..therefore, passengers to and from stations on the Manawatp Line are paying faros on about a mile more than the. trains actually carry them. The onemile peg is, as you. arc doubtless aware, close by the City tramway, terminus at Thorndon. If passengers on 1 the Manawatu Line were allowed to entrain and ..detrain at Lambton Station, as we have so often asked, there would be no complaint with respect to mileage, but as it is, a manifest injustice is done. It is high time, as my correspondent states, that something was done to meet the crying needs of Manawatu Line residents, aud of all persons who would gladly establish their, homes along the Line if given reasonable railway facilities for doing so. You have already been considering the question of altering the time of departure from, and the return to, the City of the Sunday train *to Otaki, which was fully dealt with in a letter I wrote to you recently. This would undoubtedly,largely increase the popularity of, and revenue derived from, this train. There is also the question of an early morping, train from Otaki, which has been th,e subject of request after request, for. years past. I shall hope that all these matter? may,, at an early date, receive your favourable consideration,—Yours, Faithfully, W. H. Field. ”