TRAIN ACCIDENTS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 829, 1 August 1933, Page 5

TRAIN ACCIDENTS.

Public of New South Wales Are Uneasy. DEMAND FOR INQUIRY. (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, July 27. j The departmental inquiry into the l Bowning disaster, at which terrible loss i of life was so narrowly averted, has I been completed In the meantime, a number of minor accidents—happily as yet unattended with serious consequences—have kept public attention riveted to the railways. These mishaps were nearly all rail-breakages, and it says something for the vigilance of the men engaged in watching the permanent way and for ’the. efficiency of , the service, that they -were all dis- : covered before any serious harm could j result. Mr Ilartigan, as Railway Commissioner, has informed us that, though j the departmental officers are not en- ! tirelv satisfied with the condition of i the railways, the lines are all for prac- ; tical purposes safe: and we have also been told that these frequent rail : breakages are due to the contraction l of the metal at a low temperature, and that they are common all over the | world in winter. This may be so, but we want to know more. A departmental inquiry seldom, if ever, gets to | the bottom of a mystery; and, to paraphrase the “ Daily Telegraph,” “ so long as ‘ Damn the public ’ continues to be the motto of the Railway Department, so long the present public agitation and unrest over the construction of the railways will be maintained.” For in one sense, we know too much already. It cannot be denied that much of the rolling stock is out of repair, that heavy engines are terribly destructive to light rails, and that the dismissal of about 3000 hands during the past twelve months, so say nothing of the wholesale wages “ cuts,” have : inevitably militated against the | efficiency of the service, i Mr E. A. Chapman, secretary of'the ' A.R.U., is not a man whom reasonable people care to follow, but when he asserts that there is “ something radically wrong ” with the system, and ' that there is “ ample justification for a public inquiry," he has public opinion j here solidly behind him.