COMFORT ON TRAINS.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20537, 12 February 1935, Page 8

COMFORT ON TRAINS.

Standard in Dominion Defended. REPLY TO COMPLAINT. “Every endeavour is made to reduce calls on passengers to a minimum,” said the District Traffic Manager of Railways, Mr E. S. Brittenden, when answering criticism on the New Zealand railways made by Mr James R. Ellis, of Seattle. Mr Ellis complained of the number of times guards asked for passengers’ tickets during the course of a journey and the use of roller towels which he described as “unsanitarv.”

With the object of reducing calls on passengers careful investigations had been made from time to time with a view to the adoption of a system of ticket checking providing some improvement on the present arrangement, said Mr Brittenden. The American system of travelling on a train for three days and being asked for a ticket only once, as mentioned by Mr Ellis, while admirably suited to the long stages and journeys in the United States, was found to be impracticable of adoption in this country without a considerable and prohibitive increase in staffing costs. Special arrangements had been made with regard to the checking of tickets held by passengers in the North Island sleeper services, said Mr Brittenden, who stated that he had difficulty in commenting on Mr Ellis’s remarks about being wakened up at 6.30 a.m., as the particular journey undertaken had not been stated. It was pointed out by Mr Brittenden, however, that the “up'’ express from Wellington was due in Auckland at 7.6 a.m. and it was quite possible that Mr Ellis had been called between 6.30 a.m. and the hour of arrival in order that he might have time to dress.

Dealing with washing and drinking facilities on South Island cars, Mr Brittenden said he considered the local services suffered by reason of the fact that a comparison was made with facilities provided in the overland United States services, which were required to serve the purposes of passengers travelling for days at a time, but New Zealand trains catered for passengers who were travelling for a few hours only. Individual Towel System. The individual towel system had been given a trial but it had been found that the roller towel, which was changed as required during the journey, more adequately met requirements. One fact that should be remembered was that the United States railways served 125,000,000 people, while the population of New Zealand was only a little more than 1,500,000, said Mr Brittenden. He added that the department was appreciative of the helpful criticism of Mr Ellis and the spirit in which it had been made. Mr Brittenden has had no personal experience of travel in America but he expressed the opinion that our services compared more than favourably with those in the Australian States whichhe has visited. A number of travellers from Australia had also concurred with that view. “As a matter of fact, visitors from the Commonwealth, England and other countries have frequently been most commendatory in their remarks regarding the train services in this Dominion,” he said. “Such visitors have been particularly impressed with the standard of comfort aimed at here, the speed of our trunk services and the fact that this has been achieved on a 3ft 6in track in a sparsely populated country. “In conclusion I would like to say that my department is fully cognisant of the necessity for providing everything possible for the comfort of the passengers and I claim that the new car stock placed in our express services is some tangible evidence of the Government Railway Board’s efforts in this direction.”