MAIN TRUNK JOURNEY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 93, 13 January 1921, Page 5

MAIN TRUNK JOURNEY

"A VERITABLE NIGHTMARE.” Very dirty, inadequate, unlighted lavatory accommodation is one of ilm outstanding discomforts of travel on the so-called expre-ss trains of the North Island Main Trunk service (says tne Christchurch "Star"). Sleeping berths that provide for only a small proportion of the travellers force the bulk of the train users to spend a veritable nightmare in their own carriages in all sorts of postures, snatching a few minutes’ sleep between the constant 'banging or doors, the visits of the guard, and the midnight clanging of refreshment room bells at stations where nobody wants refreshments. The torture of a teain journey to Auckland is long drawn out. Tne waits and stoppages are so tantalising that the traveller wonders what a "slow train.” would be like. Unclean lavatories are the principal cause of complaint. A roller towel and a few slippery lumps of soap are common property ‘or the 30 washers if they like to use them. Tho basins are old and weather-beaten, and they soon become extremely dirty. Tn file daytime ’the light over the washbasin is turned out, and it is possible to be washing or even shaving one moment and to be plunged without warning next moment into the inky darkness of a tunnel. The of the express trains, making due allowance for the steep gradients at various points, is really remarkable, and compares most unfavourably with the Sydney-Melbourne expresses. which do a much longer distance in about two-thirds of the time. Auckland is 426 miles by rail from Wellington and the journey occupies 18 hours. This includes frequent stoppages, not only al important centres, bur also several wavsidc stations, presumably for water or fuel, or to pass other trains. But the waits generally are so long as to suggest that nr express train in reality, and not merely in name/ might knock a couple of hours off the trip.