RAILCAR SERVICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23354, 20 November 1937, Page 8

RAILCAR SERVICE

VARYING OPINIONS EXPRESSED MINISTER’S STOUT DEFENCE iFrom Our Parliamentary Reporter* WELLINGTON, Nov. 19. Varying opinions on the service provided by railcars were expressed by members during a discussion on the Estimates of the Working Railways Account in the House of Representatives to-day. The Minister of Railways (Mr D. G. Sullivan), who stoutly defended them, said that they were extremely popular with the travelling public on those lines where they were used. Mr H. S. S. Kyle (Opposition, Riccarton) said that he had met people who were afraid to travel in railcars. One car had been derailed through striking a deer, so that it was difficult to say what would happen if one encountered a bull or a horse. Mr B, Roberts (Govt., Wairarapa) congratulated the Minister on the introduction of railcars. They were a great asset to people living on the Wairarapa line, he said, and they had not been deterred by the fact that one had been blown off the line. A train had once been blown off the line in that neighbourhood, but no one had suggested that the department should stop running trains. “ Railcars are extremely popular," said the Minister in reply, “and the difficulty is not in filling them but in obtaining enough cars to meet the demand. Both on the ChristchurchHokitika line and on the WellingtonWairarapa run they are proving satisfactory from every point of view, and I am sure that they will prove to be one of the best moves that has been made in connection with the railway services of this country. There are a great many of them in use in other counlries, and the fact that they are on the increase would suggest that they have proved satisfactory. In this country they will enable us to get rid of many of the mixed trains that are run at present,"