EVENING TRAINS RESTORES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16761, 30 January 1918, Page 4

EVENING TRAINS RESTORES

DECISION BY CABINET. f MILITARY DEMANDS RELAXED ' NEW SERVICE IN FORTNIGHT. [by telegraph. ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON. Tuesday. A limited evening suburban railway service is to be inaugurated shortly. The Minister for Railways, the Hon. W. H. Herries, made an announcement on the subject to-day. ''Cabinet has given consideration to the question of suburban trains," said the Minister. "The reduction of the number of men required for each reinforcement, and the dropping of one or more drafts, make it possible for the Defence Department to refrain from calling up a certain number of men from those railwaymen who have been balloted, and who would have gone into camp in a month or so. Cabinet has therefore derided that there shall be a limited restoration of the suburban week day evening train services, as far as the number of men released will permit. Cabinet has also decided that all the other train restrictions in force shall stand at present. Notice will be given shortly of the proposed new time-table, which may come into operation in about a fortnight. Any such time-table will be liable to readjustment or termination if the exigencies of military service, or a shortage of coal, render necessary a curtailment of the train services."

Mr. Herries went on to say that the Railway Department had released for service over 7000 men, and at the present moment there was a shortage of 4300 men on the trained staff. Since the cut in May, 2150 men had been, or were due to be, sent into camp, which was more than was expected when the cut was made. The whole o? the fit men in the First Division of the railway service would be exhausted with the exception of 20 or 30 experts, when the drafts due to go into camp in March and April had gone.

By the First Division of the railway service the Minister evidently refers to the Departmental classification, and not to the First Division of the Expeditionary Force Reserve.