THE NAPIER RAILWAY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3821, 15 October 1883, Page 3

THE NAPIER RAILWAY.

[To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.] Sik, —From time to timo I have noticed in both the local papers references to tho Avant. of sufficient carriages on the Napier line of raihvay. These complaints are invariably made after one or other of the very few holiday fetes that we have in this district. AYe have all rend in tho pa])ers how on these occasions holiday-makers havo had to put up Avith trucks and cattle vans, and how they have had to stand on the platform to the danger of their lives. As a matter of fact there has been ono life lost through the praetico of standing on a platform, and in common Avith everybody else I hold strongly to the opinion that no one should bo alloAvod to stand outside a carriage. Also, in common with universal opinion, I strongly deprecate the suspension of a rulo that permits trains to be started from a station Avith the platforms of every carriage crowded. If sitting room of some sort or another cannot bo found iv a train, the standing* passengers should be compelled to Avait for tho next conveyance. But, Sir, because there docs not happen to be enough carriages kept in store to meet every emergency, such as a race meeting, I, as a taxpayer, cannot sec the Avisdom of increasing rolling stock to satisfy every demand that may arise. A railway carriage costs the colony at least £250, and to havo as many coaches as Avould bo required to convoy tho passengers to Hastings at a race meeting Avould put the country to the expense of .something like £5000. And for eleven months in the year those extra twenty carriages would bo lying idle. There aro noAv, I am informed, between twenty and thirty carriages on this line, and I Avould ask anyone, ivho is in the habit of travelling by railway, hoAV many unused coaches thoy soo every day at Napier, Hastings, or Tc Auto ? Evidently, from tho many standing idle, tho lino, for all ordinary Avork of the year, is well supplied for tho traffic, and for extraordinary occasions the public, in the interests of tho public purse, should be prepared to sacrifice something.—l am, &C, ECONONIST. October 15, 1883.