TRAINS RUNNING LATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20229, 13 April 1929, Page 10

TRAINS RUNNING LATE.

The Minister of Railways has issupd a statement, categorically denying; the suggestion that delays in (he arrival of important mail trains have been deliberately engineered. He denies the existence of any "go slow" policy, and says the delays have been "due to incidents always more or less attendant on the working of a railway." The Minister's statement can be accepted unreservedly. He is in a position to satisfy himself of the truth or otherwise of the allegations. He would scarcely have expressed himself so definitely if he had not made inquiries and satisfied himself that things are just as he says, that the railwaymen are in fact co-operating loyally and making every endeavour to meet the department's requirements. So far as it goes this is a welcome assurance, for the species of sabotage charged against the train crews and the railway staff would be as new as it would be a sinister feature of railway working in New Zealand. But the onus having been removed from the railway staffs, it rests all the more directly on the management. Trains have been arriving late all over New Zealand. Complaints about delays have arisen in places so far apart as Auckland and Dune.din. The Minister has simply said what has not caused the trouble, which is of little value as an assurance against its continuance. It is not enough to say the delays have been due to incidents more or less attendant on the working of a railway, because lately they have been so much more than less. Punctuality is an essential to a satisfactorilyconducted service. Allowance is always made for thp extraordinary happening, for the effect of unusual weather conditions, for an actual accident. The lateness of important trains has been so frequent recently that it rannot. reasonably bp attributed to such causes, or if it is so, then the sudden rush of contingencies has been very remarkable. While the Minister's statement defending the loyalty of the staff can be accepted thankfully, the public will bp all the more expectant of an assurance that the positive causes of delayed running have been detected and guarded against for the future.