SUMMER TRAIN SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14218, 15 November 1909, Page 6

SUMMER TRAIN SERVICE.

DISAPPOINTED WORKERS. NO EARLY MORNING TRAIN. While the service which will be provided on the Auckland railways during the summer months, commencing from [December 1, is generally' conceded to meet the requirements of traffic better than the present service, complaints are made by particular classes of the community that the new service will leave them no better off than they are now, and that concessions which it was .hoped would be granted have been withheld. -,-■-:,; • . '' -.\-'l '. Those who have to reach the city before 7.30 ,;, a.m., in order to be , at work, are disappointed that, despite the strong representations made' to the Railway Department to run early morning trains, the service will remain as at present. " Prosumablv the Department's reason was that it thought earlier trains would not pay," said one of those who have to begin work early, "but what the basis of its calculation was can only be conjectured, and consequently those who wanted earlier trains have no chance of disproving the Department's contention. Probably a factor which the Department has overlooked altogether is the possible expansion of the traffic. The Minister for Railways has shown so little enterprise in endeavouring to meet the competition of early trains from the suburbs that people have been forced to felv on tram facilities. Consequently it is impossible* to say what measure of support an early-morning train service that really catered for*the requirements of the people would . receive—-probably it would be considerable. Evidence available goes to show that if there should be any loss it would. be a small one, and it is one [of those occasions on which the Railway Department would have been justified in taking more than the purely commercial view, considering that an early-morning train service would enable workers to live in the cpuntry, and thus relieve the congestion of the city."

Butchers state that as far as they can see from a first reading of the time-table, no additional facilities are provided for the railaoie of meat into the city, and in particular no means is provided of bringing meat in before 11 a.m. on Monday.