SUNDAY EXCURSION TRAINS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22114, 18 November 1933, Page 12

SUNDAY EXCURSION TRAINS

While every respect is due to the views expressed this morning by a correspondent, whose righteous indignation is excited by the fact that the Railways Board has announced - the resumption of Sunday excursion trains, it has to be recognised that the Board, operating a commercial enterprise, is meeting a public demand with the policy which it has adopted. The Board’s annual report showed that during the past financial year the railways carried 1,803,146 passengers on day and special excursions and other trips at reduced fares. Of this total a large proportion must be represented by the passengers on Sunday excursions. In 1926 the passengers for the corresponding class of traffic numbered 657,357. There has consequently been a very considerable increase in the volume of this traffic. It will be said that the railway service has itself created the demand for Sunday excursions by the facilities which it has offered. No doubt it has done so to some extent, but the demand already existed and, if the Railways Board had not seen its way to meet it, road services would have catered to the extent of their ability for the people who desire to take advantage of the week-end to visit other places. In principle there does not seem to be much difference between excursions by rail and excursions by road on Sundays. And, if excursions by train or service car which attract large numbers of people are to be denounced, what is to bo said about the use that is made of the roads on Sundays by the more fortunate persons who have their private conveyances? The fact is that, unless it is to be held that only those who do not possess motor cars of their own are to be deprived of the opportunity of Sunday excursions, there is no strictly logical ground upon which objection can be raised to the policy of the Railways Board in providing Sunday excursions.