RAIL SERVICE WANTED

Camp News, Volume 2, Issue 85, 15 August 1941, Page 6

RAIL SERVICE WANTED

Hawke’s Bay Soldiers In Trentham Camp

UNABLE TO .VISIT HOMES DURING WEEKENDS

The lack of a rail service to Hawke’s Bay to enable soldiers to visit their homes during weekend leave has been the subject of concern on the part of some men in Trentham CanTp whose homes are in Hastings, Napier* and other parts of northern Hawke’s Bay. One of these soldiers, it was stated on Saturday afternoon, communicated recently with the Government asking whether a service could be inaugurated, but received no reply to his letter.

A soldier pointed out that many men in camp were able to visit their homes in the Wellington, Taranaki and Manawatu districts, because there were adequate rail services operating after leave began on Saturday afternoon, and available to take them back to Wellington in time to return to camp before its expiration. The Hawke’s Bay men could not share such a privilege as there was no passenger service of any kind to their province.

►Several men had been in the nabit of hiring a taxi to take them to Hastings for the weekend, he added, but the cost made the trip an expensive luxury. To charter a taxi for the weekend cost £l2/10/-, or £2/10/- each for a party of five. Quite a number of taxis set off for Hawke’s Bay on leave weekends, and he thought that if the Railways Department could establish a railcar service it would receive sufficient patronage to warrant its continuance, while it would enable the men to visit their homes at a cost more within their reach.