CROWDED TRAINS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17111, 17 March 1919, Page 3

CROWDED TRAINS.

Sir,—The overcrowding on the Main Trunk 'express is fast'- becoming a public grievance.. It is a tiring enough journey at the best of times; so it seems hardly fair when one pays a big- price .for a ticket that one has to. take the risk of standing,' as tho seating accommodation is . inadequate to the demand. Perhaps it could bo so arranged that an extra carriage could be added at one of the bigger stations on the line, if it should, be necessary.' The Government, has : generously \ (and rightly, too) granted a privilege ticket over" the railways to each returned - soldier; but . the gilt is rather takenoff his pleasure trip it he has to stand till , through the night on a carriage platformj or take' the alternative of lying off the. floor in the aisle of l a carriage, -where' his slumbers (if he fa lucky. enough to sleep at all), arc rudely broken" into:by guard's rounds,-i or being stepped: over by his fellow passengers as they pass in and out. Of course/ at the war he was! used , to roughing it,, but on a pleasure; trip it/, fa quite a different matter. /Certainly one may book a seat to, be sure of, getting one, but a soldier and'!a gentleman' would not keep his seat and let a lady stand. On th«i Main' Trunk, from the South;;, which, ? ■■■ arrived in Auckland Saturday morninj.y this 15th, in one carriage alone , there w>ro- , . two - soldiers sleeping on the -floor, who had given Kup their seats to ladies, who :. would otherwise have, had to stand, tie-. ■"■./ there were no vacant seats. Hoping that this crowding will) .in the .future, be avoided. • '.'•'. v, ** .'' A' PASSENGER OMTnsTaAlx.