PRE-WAR TRAIN SERVICES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17333, 3 December 1919, Page 8

PRE-WAR TRAIN SERVICES.

The new railway time-table announced to-day will be generally welcomed as a great improvement in travelling facilities in comparison with the services provided since the introduction of the successive curtailments from the " man-saving" timetable of May, 1915, to the " coalsaving" restrictions of last July. The Department has provided for the Auckland district virtually the pre-war time-table, the effect of which is a material advance both in regard to number and speed of trains. The double express service between Auckland and Wellington is to be resumed by the addition of a train leaving Auckland at 1 p.m. and one leaving Wellington at 3.35 pm. The necessity for these additional trains has lately been manifest in the daily overcrowding of the single express, and the inconvenience suffered by those who have been unable to obtain accommodation. On the Kaipara line an express service is to be provided on three days of the week, reducing the journey to Helensville from the present time of nearly three hours to less than two hours, and that to Ranganui from 5 hours 20 minutes to 4 hours 15 minutes. Similarly on the Rotorua line, the express schedule has been reduced by about half an hour. The suburban services are also to be increased and the trains speeded up, while the full service of Sunday trains is to be restored, with an additional train to Henderson in the evening, and another from Henderson to Auckland in the afternoon. There will probably be some disappointment that the projected " limited" service on the Main Trunk line has not been included, but the present proposals are evidently intended as an instalment, and in accordance with Mr. Massey's declared policy of adequate provision for the needs of the public, will no doubt be expanded as the traffic develops and still better facilities are required.