TRAIN JAM AT WELLINGTON

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 133, 22 June 1937, Page 5

TRAIN JAM AT WELLINGTON

-Press Associatiori.)

70 Trains Held Up at New Station HOPELESS CONFUSION

(By Teleffraph—

WELLINGTON, Last Night. Nearly 70 trains working on timocables between 4 p.m. and midnight wero involved in a serious disorganisation of the railway service operating from the new Wellington station to-day. As this was the first general working day since the official opening on Saturday, the re-arranged yard and platform accommodation was given an initxal test. ApaTt from minor delays of few minutes in which two or three trains were affected, the timetabies were satisfactorily maintained throughout the : morning. Early in the afternoon, from about 4 o'clock, however, when the evening ! rush developed on the sub.ufban lines, the utmost confusion arose. It went from bad to worse from 5 o'clock until Ihe time for the departure of the Limited at 7.15, when the disorder reached its climax. So tangled were ! the timetabies that the departura of the | Limited was delayed by 65 minutes. The Wellington-Palmerston North train, | which ordinarily leaves at 5.40 p.m., I was also held in the station for more : than an hour. All the suburban i schedules on the Hutt-Manawatu lines ' were thrown out of their norual runi ning and one train on the Hutt station { was cancelled when its predecessor on, ! the same service overlapped its time of i departure. j At 9 p.m. five of the nine platforms. ; were congested with stauding trains j | unable to move because, it was stated, j of 'the difficulties over shunting arrange* ments. Half a mile down in the yaTds form the station two suburban trains were banked end to end, and at one stage seven locomotives were held in a' kind of cul-de-sac helpless to move the cars until they could be freed by the gradual elimination of the herded trains as engines became available from the yards. Some of the trains had been there as long as an hour and a-half. ' ' The delay originated with an engine that should have been out of the shed earlier than it was," the district traffic manager, Mr. W. Schierning, said to-night. "As it was the first night, this threw things out of gear. There are one or two details we hope to imjprove on to-morrow. It hae to be re- ; ! membered that the opening pf a new I ; station is a pretty big under taking. !This morning things wont remarkably t well but uufortunately to-night this liitch occurred. , Such happenings are usually inseparable from the opening of a new Btation." Asked whether to-night 's experience had revealed any defect in the lay-out of the tracks and whether any change would have to be made, Mr. Schierning said there was no fault in the lay-out and no change would be necessary. "It is simply that the men are not yet familiar with the new way of working," he added. "When they get into the work. and become familiar with the various movfements that have to be made, all will be well."