The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1912. RAILWAYS.

Waipa Post, Volume II, Issue 92, 8 March 1912, Page 2

The Waipa Post. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY FRIDAY, MARCH 8, 1912. RAILWAYS.

ALTHOUGH Mr Massey did not say in the course of the noconfidence debate in what way he proposed to reform our present railway system, he undoubtedly hit on a weak spot in the Ward Administration. Slow, dirty, uncomfortable, our trains are regarded with dismay,by the tourist and with a feeling of simmering indignation by the dwellers in our suburbs who are compelled to use them daily. The carriages are dusty, the cushioned seats

remind one of the famous cell designed for Guy Fawkes, which by a perverse ingenuity, was so constructed that rest in any position was a physical impossibility ; and the traveller is being constantly bothered to produce

his tickets as if he were a ticket-of-leave man endeavouring to elude the vigilance of the police. On the Main Trunk line there is a mad rush for the dining-car when meals are announced, and there is a most unseemly scramble for food. The carriages are crowded to such an extent that travellers who have paid for their seats are often quite to secure the accommodation* for which they have paid. There

has been little or no effort to cater for the dweller in the suburbs, who has to be thankful if a train runs sometimes and somewhere. The whole thing wants reorganising on a totally different basis. The travelling public ought to receive the first consideration. On the run from Hobart to Launceston —a matter of a few hours only —every possible convenience is provided for travellers. You can hire a rug and a pillow tor a shilling ; the carriages are comfortably upholstered; you are not compelled to produce your ticket every twenty minutes; and the officials always have some idea that a traveller is not exactly a criminal in esse or in posse. —Te Aroha News.