RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 142, 14 June 1909, Page 8

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

THE LOCAL LINE. OPINIONS OF CARRIERS AND MERCHANTS. Consequent upon a rumour that lias Ijeen current m town for some little time past to the effect that the management of the service has been lax, an Express reporter waited upon several merchants and carriers to-day, with a view to confirming or otherwise that rumour. MR C. GOODMAN'S VIEWS. Mr Goodman, when approached, said he. predicted long ago that an accident would take place at th<> Blenheim railway station when least; expected, and he thought the wonder was that it had not occurred long ago. The local system of management was very lax indeed, and it was impossible to get any civility from the local employees. :He knew of instances when goods had been taken' .to the .station, half an .hour ■before the "-time for.* booking expired and thY officials had refused to take delivery of the goods. He also pointed out that the system of shunting was not £;ood, and that insufficient care was exercised by the shunter when carts were in Lhe yard loading. As an illustration of that statement he said that on one occasion he had a dray smashed through want of consideration en the part of the shunter. H& explained that the dray was backed into a coal truck., and the driver was loading it with coal, when an engine that was shunting in the yard bumped into the truck, the impact between the dray and the truck occasioning considerable damage to the dray, and the cost of repairing it amounted to over £5. He considered that .a competent shunter should be employed. MR E. PARKER'S VIEWS. Mr Parker said the collision was only what could be expected from the way in which the line was managed at the Blenheim end. He had had a lot of dealings with the Railway De-' partment of late, but could never get any satisfaction, the Traffic Manager being unapproachable whenever lie was wanted. He was satisfied that, the system of management had caused the accident, and considered the men were not wholly to blame. 'Concerning the pace at which the train came over the Opawa Bridge this morning Mr Parker said he saw it going over, and was sure that it ,was travelling at the rate of 20 miles an hour. He stated that according to the regulations no train should, pass over that bridge unless an omcial preceded it. He had a lot of ihorses in a railway paddock on the -other side of the bridge which were 'brought in every morning about the time the Picton train arrived, and ho thought it extremely fortunate they Avere not on the bridge when the train caino along this morning, or things might „ have been worse than they really were. The management iiad not been good during the last six months. . ] MR SHARP SPEAKS. Mr J. It. Sharp, local manager for Messrs "Dalgety and Co., Ltd., said h& had no complaints to make as to the management, which he thought j iwas all that could be desired. He 'thought the semaphore signal should he installed. There was a bad curve Ifrom the Nelson Street Bridge to the statiou, and the engine was practically into the station before it came into view. He thought the train Jshould be signalled when it arrived iat the Opawa Bridge. He stated <-. that he was present when the great faccidtint took place at Rakaia some jyears ago, and the one which took iplace this morning was exactly the .same as that. The train collided with on that occasion was moved in precisely the same v>*ay as the Secldon

train 'was this morning, and but for , that many more lives would have been j lost. It was extremely fortunate j that there was no loss of life this morning. He thought there should be. a double line constructed as far as the Nelson Street Bridge, or that the curve he mentioned should be minimised in some way. He would not say that the management at the Blenheim station was las. He considered that more rolling stock was required to enable shipping operations to carry on. The merchants usually received very short notice, and it' frequently occurred that trucks were not available. That, he thought, was no fault of the management. Iho Chamber of Commerce had the matter of improving the line from the Opawa Bridge to the station under consideration, and it would be brought under the notice of the Minister "for -Railways when he arrived MR REID. Mr J. Reid, manager for the NewZealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Co., Ltd., said he found that the management of the railway under Mr Couch's supervision had been exceptionally good, in fact it was a o-reat improvement on what it had ever been before. He was of the opinion that a semaphore signal should bo installed at the Nelson Street crossing. When he heard the noise this morning he thought that one of the bridges had broken down, and it then occurred to him that the inconvenience of that bridge, complained of so long, would be remedied. He reiterated his former statement that Mr Couch had proved himself to be an obliging and competent man in every way. He contended there was ample rolling stock accommodation, and that as far as he -eyas- concerned he only had to advise Mr Couch that he wanted trucks, and his requirements were promptly attended to. MR C. W. PARKER. Mr C. W. Parker thought there should be a shunting engine stationed at Blenheim, and that- the station yard should be improved upon. He stated that at present there was only one line used for shunting purposes, and when there was much carting to be done the carriers had to wait for each other before they could get at the trucks to unload them. _ Better and more decent accommodation was undoubtedly required. Of late the facilities had been greatly improved upon by the Department running two goods trains daily. ■ With regard to the shortage of trucks, he thought there should be more available, particularly during the busy portion of the year. He referred to the extension of the line to Blind River, and stated that trucks were often used for carting sleepers to the head of the works when they were needed for the purpose of trucking grain. Another matter which required attention,was the improving of the accommodation at Grovetown. There was_ at the present time only room for a limited number of trucks, and while the district around Grovetown was only small it was very fertile, and a great deal of trucking was done*" there a"nd better \ facilities should be given for that purI pose. Then, again, he had noticed I that trucks had been used for gravelling the line when merchants needed them in the busy time of the year, The "railway officials had, however, ©x--1 plained that that was done because the line required strengthening to enable it to bear the heavy traffic,, but the work had ceased as scon as the weak portion or the line had been repaired. MR J. J. CORRY. Mr Corry, of Messrs Corry and Co., stated that there was not half enough room in the railway yard, and thought that the line should be duplicated as far down as the Opawa bridge. There was also a great need of increased truck accommodation. The heads of other firms were waited upon, but were either engaged or were not in attendance at their offices. Guard Mclntosh was in charge of the Picton train and Guard France of the Seddon train.