RAILWAY MEALS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 156, 30 December 1938, Page 9

RAILWAY MEALS

POPULAR AT CHRISTMAS

Not omy does the Railway Depart* ment.provide transport for travellers, but it feeds them and provides other special services as well, and the increased returns from the various ser* vices at the Wellington station provide a further indication of the greater number of people on the move^ this year compared with last. Compared with the corresponding period of 1937, the takings for the week ended last Saturday are up as follows:—Bookstall, 47 per cent.;' dining room, 10 per cent.; cafeteria, 20 per cent.; hairdressing saloon, 10 per cent. During the week the number of. set meals served in the dining room was 7500, compared with 7200 last year, and in the cafeteria, 15,550 'per-' sons were served, compared with. 12,720. There is every indication that the current week will prove a record for the dining room since it was- first opened. From and including Christmas Day up to last night 6700 meals had been served. Christmas dinner was eaten at the railway station by 350 people. On Friday, December 23, which wa3 a record in the history of the railway service, 1290 cushions were hired out to travellers on express trains leaving Wellington. Although tramway officials are of the opinion that there wiere more people in Wellington over this Christmas than last, takings on the tramways are only about the same as for the previous Christmas. holidays. This is accounted for by the unfavourable weather during the holidays - which reduced! the usually heavy traffic to .tha beaches to almost nothing. Small passenger lists were also experienced by the Eastbourne ferry; service.