INTERMEDIATE RAILWAY STATIONS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 4618, 2 December 1875, Page 3

INTERMEDIATE RAILWAY STATIONS.

TO THE EDITOE OB THB LYTTELTON TIMES, Sib, —I should like to ask, through tho medium of your paper, whether a slight reform or increased accommodation is not required by the public on our railway lines. My first complaint is, that at many of the intermediate stations stage or platform accommodation is miserably deficient. The public have to get out on tho side of the line, running the risk of slipping-, particularly on wet days; to women and children it is simply abominable their having to do so. I have seen the trains backed or moved on when ladies have had anyone to ensure their comfort and safety, and nice vend when not. My complaint is not against tha railway officials, for, as a rule, I feel bound to say that they not only have their duties to do, but that they do them with respect to the public and politeness to those travelling under . their charge. So far as I have observed, tha fault lies at someone else’s door; whoever i& or they may happen to bo, I think the publie can safely, without fear of being importunate, demand increased accommodation. There is also a nuisance that should be altered or corrected—that of passengers having to call out their destination at the previous station. £ have heard women and children frightened aft the idea of singing out their destination; and I have heard them many times say they would almost go on to the end of the line and walk back than do so before a lot of strangers, lb is all very well for the male portion of tha community to use their lungs, and not ba bashful; but it is an entirely different thing for a timid woman or child to do so. Could not a bell be so placed on the top of the carriage that, on the guard’s inquiry of “ Anyone for the next station,’’ it could be used for the answer by any of the passengers wishing ta stop. This is only a suggestion; perhaps a better way of managing the tickets may be known to the railway authorities, so as to obviate this rule of singing out. lam perfectly aware that it seems foolish to stop at a small station, merely because it is a station-, with no one to alight or take up by the train, causing needless delay; but for the comfort oE those travelling it were better ao if them is no other method for stopping tho train than the present objectionable moda of shouting oat your destination. Surely it does not need any great stretch of genius to devise some way to obviate it. Hoping tho railway management will take the complaints into consideration and rectify them accordingly at their earliest. Tour obedient servant, Nov. 29. ONE OF THB PUBLIC.