RAILWAY TIME-TABLE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20669, 15 September 1930, Page 8

RAILWAY TIME-TABLE.

Presumably as an outcome of the completion of the Westfield deviation, the Railway Department has decided to make Tc Awainutu and To Kuiti stopping-places for the limited express to and from Auckland. The decision will be given effect when the new Auckland station is opened and the expresses travel over the deviation. This instituting of new stopping-places, together with provision for another at, Taekakariki on the down run to Wellington, to allow passengers to have breakfast at f'aekakariki at a convenient time, necessitates an alteration in the time-table, and the making of this is in hand. Ihe placing of Te Awainutu and To Kuiti on the list of stopping-places for the limited express represents an appreciable increase of the convenience afforded by that train. For some time there has been agitation for this change, and the eventual decision in favour of it is welcome. It may be taken, of course, as an instalment of the benefit to accrue from the construction of the deviation and the building of the new station ; full benefit from the latter improvement will not come, unfortunately, until the Morningside tunnel project is realised. It is something, however, that the saving of time on the deviation allows of this advantageous addition of stop-ping-places on the Auckland-Well-ington run. The revision of the time-table ought to he made bv the department an occasion for reviewing the departure-times of the Auck-land-Wellington expresses. No one seems to lie able to explain why from the Wellington end the two expresses can leave at about a fivehours interval, whereas those from Auckland arc separated by only about half-an-hour. In the times of departure from Wellington there is a real choice for travellers; going from Auckland—so far as departuretime is concerned —they have virtually no choice: they must Icavo at an early hour in the evening, whichever train they elect to take. From Wellington the departure-times are 2 and 7.15 p.m. ; from Auckland, 7.10 and 7.45 p.m. To give a wider choice of departure-time on tho down journey would confer a benefit on many passengers. While timetable adjustments are in hand this matter could profitably be considered.