DEPARTMENT EXPLAINS CAUSES OF THE DELAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17905, 22 July 1926, Page 8

DEPARTMENT EXPLAINS CAUSES OF THE DELAY.

The delay complained of by Mr Marriner was the subject of a statement this morning by Mr H. Chapman, District Traffic Manager, this morning. Mr Chapman explained that on the days on which the Mararoa arrived from Wellington the Department did

not run a second train to bring the mails up from Lyttelton beeaxtse there was no urgency in connecting with the south express. Yesterday the number of passengers who came up from Lyttelton by the ferry train was actually 180, instead of between 300 and 400, as stated by Mr Marriner, and the times mentioned by Mr Marriner were not strictly correct. The ferry boat berthed at 8.6 ra.m., said Mr Chapman, and the ferry train pulled off the wharf at 8.54, and left the Lyttelton station at 0.2, arriving in Christchurch at 0.17. The average wait at Lyttelton on the days when the Mararoa arrived was about thirtyfive minutes, but yesterday there were special circumstances which caused the longer delay. The waterside workers were holding a stop-work meeting when the ferry boat arrived at . the wharf, and the Railway Department had to get its permanent hands to unload the luggage and mails. This caused a delay of about twenty minutes, which could have been avoided if the Department had been aware that it was the intention of the watersiders to hold the stop-work meeting at that particular time. That loss of time was responsible for a further delay of ten minutes, caused through a goods train having been given the .right of way in the tunnel in the meantime, making k total loss of time of about thirty minutes. The average time taken to deal with the Wahine and the Maori was fifteen minutes, so actually the people arriving by the Mararoa had to wait only an extra fifteen minutes at the wharf under normal circumstances