TRAVEL COMFORT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 161, 28 September 1927, Page 12

TRAVEL COMFORT

DINING CARS AGAIN NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS EQUIPMENT OF STATIONS | (2 HE SUX’S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, To-day. Dining-cars may soon be back on the expresses again. In his annual statement, the Minister of Railways says: j ‘‘l believe it will soon be necessary. ; also, to reopen the question of providing passengers with meals on j trains. This can be done by the reinstatement of dining-saloons and by the supply of hampers. I secured specimens of the latter as used on the British railways, and have, as a commencement, arranged for a supply to be placed on some of the expresses. “Refreshment services, whilst being expected to pay, must also be looked upon as a very necessary service to the travelling public. It is, of course, anticipated that a higher standard and increased conveniences will cost a little more, but experience gained in other countries goes to show that where these are desired by the travelling public, and are provided by railway systems, no objection is raised to charges being fixed reasonably to cover the improved service.” Regarding the equipment of stations Air. Coates says: “In this direction also New Zealand lias much to look forward to, if some of the modern facilities of the British, European and American stations can be included in the new stations being constructed here. The new Union station at Toronto is equipped with almost every conceivable convenience for the comfort of the travelling public. “These include heated waitingrooms, a high-class dining-room, counter refreshments, baths, showers, barbers’ shop, and many other public-utility services. “Wellington’s new station, for instance, will be equipped with every modern convenience, as passengers must, of necessity, spend a good deal of time at this station in making connections to and from the Wellington-Lyttelton, Well-ington-Picton, and Wellington-Nel-son ferry-steamers, and with train services to and from various parts of the North Island. “Services of this kind must be provided in future, so that increased inducement may be offered to passengers to patronise the national transport system in preference to other transport services.”