RAILWAYS AND THE PUBLIC

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3143, 28 July 1917, Page 2

RAILWAYS AND THE PUBLIC

Sir,—Can you 'tell me if tho railways in this country aro run for tho benefit of railway employees or if the convenience and comfort of tho travelling public, who pay their fares, is considered by tho management? It would appear not, as when travelling at tho close of the Easter holidays, I was surprised, and not a littlo annoyed, to find myself, along with other ferry steamer passengers travelling southwards, bailed up on the Christchurch platform, and not permitted to onter the carriages waiting there for us until wo had provided ourselves with a reserved seat ticket at 'the booking office. As several hundred people with return tickets had to bo so supplied on the shortest notice, and havo their names recorded in a book and a written ticket issued for which a charge of "d. was being made, you can imagine tho crowd, and judge the uncomplimentary remarks nbout railway management and methods being bandied nbout by the passengers kept waiting there for over an hour. You can also judge our surprise when tho threo reserved seats in a birdcage carriage allotted to the party were pointed out to us, to find the remaining three .seats in the compartment unreserved, and already occupied by an employee and presumably four members of his family, travelling at the public expense, and probably depriving paying passengers of tho means of travel, as this was tho time when the number by any one train was being strictly limited, and the iiirplus shutout. Other.paying passengers were wandering about the train looking for seats anywhere, and I overhead uncomplimentary remarks about myself for occupying the seat reserved for mo and so marked, to tho deprivation of one of tho deadheads.

All this can be verified by one member of Parliament, but it is just as well that others should know what goes on. When wo read impertinent resolutions from railway servants in the backblocks we begin to think about theso things.— I am, etc., A PAYING PASSENGER.