RAILWAY MANAGEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18736, 14 December 1922, Page 3

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Last week, in response to my letter of complaint regarding the treatment of an elderly lady in respect of her travelling on an expired ticket, Mr Bowles made to your representative a statement that the proper course for' the passenger to adopt was to apply for an extension of the ticket. Apparently this is the rule in the rule book. I put it to you, Sir, that not one in five hundred of your readers knows that a single ticket on a journey from one end of Jvew Zealand to the other is good for four days only. Unfortunately the lady in question, because she was unaware of this fact and because fhe was delayed by no fault of her own, had to put up with the indignity of having her ticket taken away from her, of being questioned and cross-questioned, and finally being written to by the Dunedin stationmaster and requested to pay her fare again from Christchurch to Dunedin. All this, desnite the fact that the railway officials well knew the position regarding the ferry service, and that, further, (ho facts wore explained to the inspector, who would study acquaint his senior officer with the facts. An inspector is a responsible office?, and one would thing that ho would be able to exercise some discretion, but evidently he must take his cue from the traffic superintendent, and whatever the circumstances may bo passengers are to bo annoyed and inconvenienced simply because a rule is not strictly adhered to. Wo know the railway ticket and inquiry facilities at the railway station at Christchurch. and can imagine a train load of people waiting for hours in a queue to obiain an extension of their tickets because of the breaking down of the ferry service. The matter I have drawn attention to is ono instance only of the red tape methods of the Railway Department. The Post and Telegraph people and most other Government departments I know* of do not make trouble as the Railway Department does, and it seems high time that some new system was adopted. For instance, some time ago I purchased a return ticket to a southern town. Before boarding the train for. the return journey I could not find the return half of my ticket, and immediately went to the ticket office and purchased a single ticket. The next day I applied at the Dunedin station fot a refund. It took some three weeks and much correspondence to got this. Most remarkable ! A striking example of efficiency can be witnessed at every departure of the 11.15 <ncrth express. First, only ono ticket box is opened and a queue is stretched right across the main entrance of the station and through this queue people must pass. When one has obtained one’s ticket it is impossible to get a scat on the train. Presently the stationmaster puts on another carriage; a little later, another; and, just before the train loaves, perhaps one or two more. All the time people are hanging about with their luggage and perhaps with children wondering if they are going to get away. There are dozens of small things which ono could refer to, and many petty restrictions which should bo done away with. It is responsible officers such as Mr Bowles who could surely have the power to deal with these things. It surely does not all rest with the general manager in Wellington and, as I said in my previous letter ‘it is only by ventilating these things that there is any hope of obtaining redress.—l am, etc.. Traveller. Dunedin, December 11.