RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2228, 19 April 1881, Page 3

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

The “ Timaru Herald ” is very severe on the management of the railway. In its issue of Saturday that journal says : —Yesterday being a holiday the railway arrangements were thrown, as a matter of course, into the wildest confusion. The express, as the 7.50 train from Dunedin is satirically called, was not half long enough to accommodate the passengers who wished to travel by it, for it seems not to have occurred to the officials that on Good Friday there would be a rush of holiday makers. Hence large numbers had to stand crowded together on the platforms of the carriages, in direct violation of the regulations, and of all rules of prudence ; and as things turned out, they had a cheerful time of it. On reaching the high level at Glendermid, five or six miles from Dunedin, the train proved to be too heavy for the engine, and after an ineffectual attempt to make the ascent, it was brought back to Glendermid, where a long delay occurred, to the great gratification of the outside passengers, who were exposed to a dense driving Scotch mist. At length the train was got in motion, and put at the hill with a run, the impetus of which just enabled it to reach the Port Chalmers station on the high level. Starting again it was with difficulty dragged at a snail’s pace up the incline for a few miles ; but the engine soon gave it best, and the train once more came to a dead stop. After some delay, it was decided to divide the train, and about half the carriages were disconnected and left in a cutting, while the engine drew the remainder through the two tunnels and on to Mihiwaka, whore they were shunted into a siding at a sawmill. The feelings and conditions of the “outsides," after crawling through the long Deborah Bay tunnel, in their holiday clothes, can better be imagined than described. At Mihiwaka, a roadside platform in the bush, the unwilling visitors stayed about an hour, while the engine went back for the rest of the train. Eventually the funeral procession was resumed, and after much labor the highest point was reached, ! and the train arrived at Blucskin just an hour and a half late. Going up the steep ascent to Seacliff, a few miles farther on, the engine again threw up the sponge, and sand had to be scattered on the rails to get a fresh start, after taking in water at a place called Omimi. Thus with varying success, sometimes hardly moving, at others teaiing wildly down inclines to moke up for lost time, the “express” eventually'reached Palmerston, where it was relieved of part of its freight. Then, for the first time, the unfortunate “ outsides ” managed to get seats, having hung on by their eyelids out in the cold, for just four hours. The rest of the journey was performed as well ao might bo expected under the circumstances, the chief events of interest being the muddles and delays occurring at the over-crowded stations, where everything appeared to bo thrown into utter confusion by the strange phenomenon of an increased traffic on the most popular holiday of the year. Such is railway management in New Zealand, after ten years’ experience.