CORRESPONDENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 29, 4 February 1913, Page 11

CORRESPONDENCE

CENTRAL RAILWAY STATION ' " tO *Bfc SBJtott. >" Sir,— "Hitch your wagon to a star' 1 serves, as a reason for asking publicity to what has recently been done by a"star" city of the world in providing adequate and central railway accommodation } and a reason for prompting emulation of such. In 1908 the City ol Washington, United States of America, was, if possible, Worse served in the matter of 'railway accommodation than Wellington is to-day. There .was 1 an old station at the east end of the" city, and another station was in. a back street which, although more central vifta cramped and inadequate. In 1909 it ' was decided to build a new and more 1 central station to accommodate all fraitways running into the city-^-the EennsyIvattia, Baltimore and Ohio, Seaboard air line, Atlantic coast line, Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac, Chesa* peake and Ohio, and Southern. Certainly a more imposing list than we have tiO far in Wellington, but we live in hope. ( It is important to note ttjid list •when 'the relative available" space in and Wellington's, t j>rspoae'd station on the dock site la compared. In Washington the - station and-; terminal yards to accommodate three eight (8) lines of railway running into the- capital city <rf the gl'eat United States is to cover just eighteen (18) acres and win .have 46 miles |>f track. The 'trains tunning south from the station enter al j most immediately a tunnel (also newly constructed) of about a milo in length. 'The* «Mt of tuiltiel, approaches, station,and all works cost the huge total of 30,000,000 dollars, of which the federal' Oovemihertt contributed^ a large, amount. The description and views ot the proposed work can be seen in ,the .Railway Engineer Of March, 1909. Now surely, sir, if » city of the status of. Washington, with all the varied and conflicting interests, with the enormous expense of re«uiDption and other i necessary undertakings, has thought it needful, even' at such, a .cost, ,to do the right thing, w^e here, in our comparative infancy, are ■justified in striving to have the right thing rightly gone about and the central station now built, or a start made, in the centre of our city ati a comparatively infmiysilflal .expense. ' As I have already stated in youc jcolumn.s jihere ai'e % acres available at the dock site (twenty or . thirty; thousand pounds will be requii^d for ihifting the destructor to where it should be) as against the 18 .acres in Washington The bite is in" the centre of Wellington;' it. stands' r by itself in the fliattel* of convenience for 'ship and trttih passenger traffics ] ib would bring train passengers foi' Wellington, iato Wellington j it has the necessary wide adjaceht streets for handling crowds; tram lines can be easily and .cheaply , laid on to the very doors of th*' station. An felevateej, approach' close toihe"'wharf sheds and-'ofnees' \vitE archways over -the 'entrances, to/ wharves will nOb-taae more ."^ than!. a,, few a feet k froniv 'Customliouse'.and Jervofs-quays. . ' 'In ahswer to'the atajbement that'therew.as^ibtiro'om, I-6ay that. We', have Bere. ni6r^ av^lable vacant ;s.p'ace for a ,statidh,than;many' of the largest cjti^s jn the world,',, and in answer to the-'state-ment -that the. approach . weald blbck' entrances fb tHe wfinrV^«, l l &$y ifc w'oll tnot affect 'them ions' tihitt',, that,, instead. j ■bPit*betfe-ffl>lng only * a;WwfiV fiave' propefty adjacent, it ,will lt benefit every person that lives in. comes toj or passes through ? WelHngl6n> tUai^ ifc- would decrease the wheeled traffic past tlio •head of Queen's Wharf and northward probably^6o per cent v |;tfiat, ih the opii?-> ion o£ the foremost railway.tingfrteers of, Ikb wbrld^ It as dkejrafiteln^itJaft^tereßti* at ,the public that large passenger stations should be placed as nearly as possible to the centre of population accofdiHg to its -distribution 5 that the cost of station, etc., «an> if Advantage be taken of favourable existing circumstances, be kept well below the figure mentioned by the former Minister of Railways, Mr« Myers, as likely to be spent at Thorndon, and that it is economy to Spend even £3OoiOOO.now rather* than £3,000,000 later on. The' advocates .for Wei- • lingtop' Central Station, lot! it nittst be called' by 'its proper name, are not bnly justified in stiriying for right, -but th§y would be criminally 'neglectful of this fair city'a future if they allowed their opinions to be swayed and their advocacy to be ihwarted ,by asinine accusations of interested motives or cheap cti«, ticisms of ckfcfba4**r ta ' s *Let "us 'jfight for .Right" and "Hitch your, wagon to a star."— l am, etc., J. £. JENKINSON. l •'29th January, 1913.