SALE OF RAILWAY TICKETS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2243, 1 September 1914, Page 8

SALE OF RAILWAY TICKETS

• —* —r PUBLIC OFFICE IN MID-CITY. . For some time past many complaints have been made'against the crude oldfashioned system of ticket-selling adopted by the New Zealand Railway Department in the centres! In any American town and in the Commonwealth centres one is able to purchase a ticket by any train at a centrally situated office in the city. In New Zealand one has had to be at the station at a cer- , tin tirao in order to be accommodated, and it has,always been made a difficulty to book a sleeping" berth by a train leaving a few days later than the particular day one happens to think of purchasing the ticket. For some years it was even impossible to beak a berth other than on the day the train left, and visitors to New Zealand have often expressed surprise at ou.r antediluvian methods. At last the Department is to experiment in the direction of establishing an office for the disposal of tickets, in the busiest spot in Wellington, and has managed to secure the corner shop of the King's Chambers (at the corner of Willis and Harbour Streets) where tickets will be sold presumably for any train on any date, tours will bo mapped out, and all information will be given as to railway arrangement* by a responsible officer of the Department. On being consulted, :hc Chief Clerk (Mr. It. W.: M'Villy) stated.. that it had not yet been decided asto whether the public would be able to hook "sleepers" in town, arid it was not intended to establish city offices in other centres until'the success of the innovation'in Wellington was'assured.