RACE TRAINS

Southland Times, Issue 20147, 6 April 1927, Page 6

RACE TRAINS

DISSATISFIED PATRONS TRANSPORT SERVICE CRITICISED DEPARTMENT REPLIES The treatment meted out to patrons of horse racing—owners, trainers and the general public—by the Railway Department, has come in for a good deal of censure of late, owners and trainers especially voicing their grievances in the matter in no uncertain terms. Little, or nothing, however, has emanated fronj the attempts to get better transport facilities to and from race meetings, with the result that following on the complaints by owners and trainers about the arrangements made for the abandoned Otautau meeting, our sporting editor took up the cudgels on the aggrieved ones’ behalf and penned the following: — “Local owners and trainers have had good reason on a number of occasions during the current season to express dissatisfaction with the treatment meted out to them by the Railway Department. They have been instructed in instances to be on hand at unearthly hours in the morning to load their pupils for transit to country meetings and on complying with the conditions set down have had to wait at the loading bank for an hour or more until horse-boxes were provided, provision for which might easily have been made overnight. The worst experience of the season, however, arose on Wednesday. On a wretched morning a number of horses were kept waiting for a lengthy period before they could be shipped for a tiresome journey to Otautau only to find on arrival that the races had been abandoned. The “special” horse train left Otautau for home at about 1 p.m. after being augmented by a record number of coal and other waggons and it dragged its weary length along throughout the afternoon, ‘stopping at every white gate on the way,” as one mentor described it, to arrive in Invercargill at about 5.30 p.m., a journey of four and a-half hours to cover about 32 miles, with the horses confined or bumping about from shortly after 7 o’clock in the morning. As the racing community are among the best patrons of the railways and pay into the coffers of the State an immense amount of money by way of transit charges, racing taxation, Post and Telegraph fees, etc., it is up to the powers that be to sit up and take notice as a matter of right and fairness. At the present time the Railway Department is claimed to be out for business and increased efficiency, but the racing section of the community are apparently to be ignored despite the heavy demands made on their financial resources. On several occasions this season in the south, and not at a holiday time either, the special passenger trains provided for carriage to racing fixtures have been made up of out-of-date carriages accompanied by a poor service by the way, with the result that motor traction via the public highways has won every time by reason of promptness, better accommodation and cheaper fares. Owners, trainers and the general racing public have ample cause for complaint and it is up to the Railway Department to provide improved service in future for man and beast where heavily taxed and charged patrons of the turf are concerned.” DEPARTMENT S REPLY. The local branch of the Railway Department investigated the above complaint and has submitted the following reply:— “Regarding the statement made in your sporting columns on the Ist instant on the Railway Department’s methods in dealing with race-horse traffic, the department advise that, if owners and trainers have had any cause for complaint, as stated, they have not considered it worth while to bring it under the notice of the management. If

they had done so it would have been the department’s pleasure to assist in solving their difficulties. When loading horses for race meetings, owners are requested to have their horses ready one hour before trains are due to leave, and where there are many horses, this length of time is fully occupied. That they have to wait on the loading bank for periods of an hour and longer is not correct. Last Wednesday the horses were ordered down as usual at 6.50 a.m. to load for the horse train leaving at 7.50 a.m. “The postponement after passengers and horses had left Invercargill for the Otautau racecourse is, of course, not a matter for the Railway Department to answer. The passenger traffic by rail was very light and did not justify the running of special trains. Passengers travelled by the ordinary train on outward journey, and a

goods train was to be adapted for the return at 6.10 p.m. When the meeting was cancelled at such short notice, a train service was not immediately available, but a goods train was taken advantage of. This train had important work to do, such as

conveying frozen meat from 1 Makarewa for a ship then loading at Bluff, heavy coal traffic and stock to lift, and the journey took longer than usual, but this was no fault of the Railway Department.

‘The accommodation provided for passengers to race meetings, except possibly at Christmas when the traffic is very heavy in all directions, is quite up-to-date, and only recently complimentary reference was made to the ven’ fine service provided by the Railway Department to a race meeting held in this district.”