REDUCED RAILWAY SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3043, 2 April 1917, Page 4

REDUCED RAILWAY SERVICES

The sweeping reduction in the railway services of the Dominion outlined by the Minister in Charge has already provoked the expected chorus of protest from those most, immediately affected. In spite of the fact that tho steps proposed to be taken are, in the nature of war measures the grounds of protest are in many instances purely personal and selfish. It can give little satisfaction to the Minister of Railways or the officers of his Department to curtail the number of trains run. It meanß finanoial loss to tie Department, additional worry in meeting the necessities of the travelling pixblio, and ih providing for the carriage of goods and produce; and in all probability loss of time end irritation in meeting _a, stream ofcomplaints from aggrieved citizens I who will suffer ,' inconvenience or loss through the change: Altogether ! it is a rather thankless task, for though the bulk of tho publio Jaf*y recognise that it is desirable and necessaryi to cut down tho number of trains'ru,o, their approval will, for the p&rt.be a silenji ono, whereas a, subr.tanti&l proportion of those who feel the pinch most are not likely to be. silent over it. What we have to bear in mind,_ however, is that the necessities arising out of the var must receive first consideration, and only questions on which there appear to be any room for doubt in connection with the curtailment of our 'railway services are the direction and the extent of the economies to be practised. The policy, pursued by tno Department appears, on the face of it, reasonable enough. It is, broadiy speaking, to confine the working hours on our railways to 12 hours per day instead of spreading them over the whole 24 hours, and to abolish Sunday trains. In a general way this Bounds',reasonable enough, but there is one feature of the proposal which we venture to think will be universally condemned, and pro* perly so. That is the proposal to cut off the trains by which the troops in camp are enabled to make use of their .leave and visit or be visited by their friends and relatives. We shall be told, no doubt,-1 that the stopping of these trains is a necessary part of the general scheme, and we can quite believe that to. includ6 them may involve some extra, labour which it had been hoped to save. But even if such is the case the Minister should at once issuo instructions that this part of the curtailment scheme recast and provision made for a continuance of a sufficient number of troop trains to mcot tho needs of the men* in camp. .It is right that the general puDlic should bo asked to put. Up with seme' inoonvenience in thp direction proposed, but it is entirely wrong to deprive our soldiers of ' reasonable facilities of recreation 1 and of meeting, friends and relatives during their few weeks' stay in New Zealand prior to leaving for the fighting lines. And in this respect we would draw the attention of the Minister of Defoncc and the ; Minister of ; Railways to the complaint made this morning that the 1 Easter leave of tho Twenty-seventh Reinforcements has been_ stepped on ; the ground that thero is not suffi- ' cient railway accommodation to en- ■ able the men-to travel at that busy I holiday time. If the reason is as ' stated, then we say unhesitatingly ' that an injustice is being done to ' these men which should not be per- ' raittod by those in authority. If the railway facilities are limited at I I Eastor time, then assuredly it is 1 not the troops in camp who should ' I be made xo suffer.