RAILWAY DELAYS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20421, 25 November 1929, Page 10

RAILWAY DELAYS.

Little notice might bo taken of the late arrival in Auckland of Saturday's express trains from Wellington, were it not for the fact that it was due to mechanical defects and the additional fact that the season of general travel is approaching. The cause of the delay is not new: some months ago, hot axle-boxes occasioned a sequence of belated arrivals. To the lay mind, a recurrence of such minor mishaps suggests that full advantage has not been taken of the lessons then taught by experience. Doubtless this recurrence of the trouble will awaken care to obviate it. What gives special concern is the imminence of holiday traffic. Within a x few weeks the department will have need to keep wheels moving with time-table precision, if it is to make a good showing against competing motor traffic. Road transit will then vie with the railways under favouring summer conditions, and those responsible for providing a satisfactory rail service will be rightly expected to minimise risk of inconvenience. They control a public utility, managed for the State an<| making a demand on the public purse to supplement earnings. Scrupulous care should be exercised to eliminate causes of complaint by the travelling public. It is of little use offering seasonal inducements to travel by rail if confidence is shaken by late running attributable to mechanical defects. Should the occurrences now noted lead to the taking of effective means to obviate a repetition, they may prove to have been a blessing in disguise—although that is cold comfort to travellers who have been inconvenienced by the delays.