RAILWAY SERVICES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 113, 30 January 1918, Page 6

RAILWAY SERVICES

SUBURBAN TRAINS TO BE RESTORED DECISION OF THE GOVERNMENT The Hon. W. H. Hemes, Minister of Railways, has made the following statement for the information of tho public :— ''Cabinet has had under consideration the qiustian of the suburban train services, it will be remembered that in March last Cabinet decided to cut down the train services in order to release railwaymen for military service. A scheme submitted by tho Ra ; lway Departmeut was approved by Cabinet and came into operation in May, and has been in operation ever since, Tho reduction of men required for each reinforcement and the dropping of one or more drafts make it possible for the Defence Department to refrain from calling up a certain number of men from those railwaymen who have been balloted for and who would have gono into camp in a month or so. Cabinet has therefore decided that there shall be a limited restoration of the suburban weekday evening train services as far as the number of men released will permit. Cabinet has also further decided that all the other train restrictions that are at present in force shall stand as they are at present. Due notice will be given shortly of the proposed time-table which may come into operation in about a fortnight's time. Any such time-table will be liable to readjustment from time to time, or to be terminated if the exigencies of the military service or the shortage of coal require any further curtailment of train services. "It may be of interest to state what has been done up to the present by the Railway Department in respect to sending men to the front. In all the Department has released from service since the beginning of the war over 7000 men, and at the present moment there is a shortage of 4300 men on the trained staff. Since.the cut in May, 2150 men' have been or are due to be sent into camp, which is more'than was expected when the cut was made. The whole of the fit men in the First Division of the railway service will be exhausted, with the exception of about 20 or 30 experts, when the drafts due to go into camp in March and April have gone."