TRAIN ACCOMMODATION.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16038, 31 January 1920, Page 4

TRAIN ACCOMMODATION.

The N.Z. Herald draws attention to the fact that while Christchurch coal merchants are discussing the possibility of reducing railway facilities, it is obvious to every traveller that the present services in the North are very far from adequate. This is evident in the crowding of trains, and it is brought home to the long-distance traveller by the constant refusal of tile Department to provide sleeping accommodation on the Auckland to Wellington express trains. It has apparently become the custom to book the available sleeping berths in one car and then cease booking. Occasionally a second sleeper may he attached at the last moment, but the rule is to confine the sleeping accommodation on each train to one car. Even if this rule were more frequently broken the booking system has become, of value only to those passensengers who can lay their plans well ahead and secure their berths early. This in an inconvenience which should not be permitted to continue. The official explanation is that a heavy train requires two engines over two separate section of the track and the inference is that ooal and labour are being saved by shutting out the sleeper. New Zealand passengers have had a long and unpleasant experience of such restrictions, and it would seem that the Department is reluctant to bring its services up to the demands made upon them. As a coal-saving device the boycotting of the sleeper is as crude as it is petty. Indeed, it may be questioned whether any coal is saved at all, for a sleeping car is capable of accomcodating sitting passengers to about the same number as an ordinary firstclass carriage. It is not, therefore, necessary to speak of an extra sleeper always in terms of an extra car and an extra engine. The restriction is an irritating one to which passengers who have to he 19 hours in the _ train should not be permanently subjected. The ; railway management should be, able to devise a more impressive method of saving a few tons of coal a year, even if the saving is only to be on paper.