RAILWAY CARRIAGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22005, 11 January 1935, Page 6

RAILWAY CARRIAGES

THE ONE-CLASS PROPOSAL

NEW SOUTH WALES TRAINS

The New South Wales Railways Department continues to exhibit indecision concerning the suggestion that firstclass carriages, should be abolished People who use these carriages cannot understand the antagonism that seems to be aroused by them, says the Sydney correspondent of the Melbourne Argus. They pay for what they receive, as they do, for instance, when they pay for better seats at a theatre. It is conceded that it is for the Railways Department to consider whether it is worth while to run first-class carriages if the patronage is small, and it is also a matter for the department's consideration whether first-class travel can be made sufficiently attractive to justify payment of the higher fare. Auburn, a western suburban town of industrial importance, is the latest place to express abhorrence of the first-class carriage, although its Parliamentary representative, Mr. Lang, always travels first-class. When the railways have the responsibility of carrying him class consciousness does not take him into a second-class carriage.

A curious fact was mentioned when this subject was before the Auburn Council. It was stated that the workmen at the Eveleigh workshops who join the trains in the evening in a more or less grimy condition had protested against two classes because often they had to stand. The department offered these workmen first-class season tickets at half rates.