RAILWAY TRAVELLING.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 7 April 1931, Page 4

RAILWAY TRAVELLING.

During the recent holiday period, the railway passenger traffic, inwards and outwards, at Masterton, provided evidence that the railways are not yet “down and out,” as far as the Wairarapa is concerned. The removal of the monstrosity known as the ltimutaka Incline would increase the traffic locally by at least one hundred per cent, and would save the Railway Department considerable expense and anxiety by diverting the overflow traffic from Hawke’s Bay and the Manawatu districts through the Wairarapa. The Wairarapa line has on many occasions stood the Department in good stead as an emergency route for traffic from the north beyond Wooclville. What is badly required on the Wairarapa line is a better type of railway carriage. We are at least entitled to a class of carriage equal to that to be found on the Napier-Wellington express train, especially in view of the fact that the journey over the Rimutaka Hill is one that calls for the most comfort which the Railway Department man provide. The Wairarapa has stuck to the railways much more loyally than our treatment by the Department has warranted, and were' the accommodation improved there would be many more people travel by the train to and from the Wairarapa, even with the Rimutaka Incline still in existence. The road over the Rimutaka Hill will always be dangerous, so a railway deviation would mean recapturing the traffic which now uses the highway.