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Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6534, 4 February 1882, Page 5

How much longer is the public patience to be abased by the Railway management P For a long period it has been remarked that certain of the morning trains between Lyttelton and Christ* church are overcrowded. The reason is, we shall probably be told, that steamers arrive nowadays from North and South with considerable regularity, and, as the newspapers all say, with very large numbers of passengers. The consequence is, that the trains from Port are crowded. Well, that may be the official reason, but it is not the real reason. The real reason is that the Railway Department is not alive to the situation. Large numbers of empty carriages stand idle we are told in long strings at the Christchurch depot, while many passengers are obliged to break the law by riding on the platforms of the crowded trains, and some are unable to find room at all, ~-so we have been assured. The sight of ladies standing among the crowds, on the platforms is witnessed several times by the officials, but it produces no effect. Some day there will be an inquest, and for many days thereafter there will be heard in a Lyttelton enclosure the regretful sighs of some ex-official, beguiling his hours of hard labour by bemoaning the hard fate which brought a charge of manslaughter home to him. Then we shall probably see that the periodical arrival of steamers with large numbers of passengers will be provided for by the railway authorities. Then we shall realise that strings of empty carriages are not absolutely essential to the wellbeing of railway stations. Then shall we see the public supplied with the accommodation which it now pays for and does not get.