TRAIN HOLD-UP

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20928, 6 January 1938, Page 9

TRAIN HOLD-UP

INCIDENT MAGNIFIED By Telegraph— Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, January 5. “Gross exaggeration," was the term used by the Railway Department's District Traffic Manager at Christchurch, (Mr E. S. Brlttenden) to describe the account given by a passenger of the hold up, which occurred to a train in the Lyttelton tunnel, when passengers were being conveyed from the city to watch the landing of the flying-boat Centaurus at Lyttelton on Monday. Mr Brittenden repeated his previous statement that the cause of the stoppage in the tunnel was the application by a passenger of the emergency air brake. The Department, he said, had provided the maximum possible accommodation on the train, which left at Christchurch at 9.30 a.m. The announcement made during the morning that the Centaurus would probably arrive earlier than had been expected was to a great extent the cause of heavy crowding on the station platform shortly before 9.30. While intending passengers rushed the cars when the train was drawn into the platform, haste was made in an orderly fashion and at no time was there any suggestion of stampede or panic. A few extra police were on duty as was normal on a busy day. Mr Brittenden added that the presence on the platform of a party of about 20 constables, who were en route to Lyttelton for duty, may have caused some people to assume they were engaged to handle the traffic at Christchurch. The suggestion that men and women, in an endeavour to find accommodation on the train, had reached a state bordering on hysteria was gross exaggeration to say the least. The fact that one train had been dispatched from the dock side of the platform, and the next one placed on the main line could not have created any difficulty for intending passengers as the longer siding was used for the longer train, and for the convenience of passengers. In addition an announcement was made through the loud speaker telling the public where the train was berthed. Referring to the delay, which occurred in the tunnel. Mr Brittenden said the train was stopped only once in the tunnel, and here again any idea of a suggestion of possible panic could be strongly discounted. On the second occasion when the train was pulled up it was outside the tunnel.