The Railway Station

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 140, 30 June 1937, Page 7

The Railway Station

J.G.

Sir, — I have read with pleasure and eatisfaction the sensible and reasoned letter of your correspondent "Old Resident" on the above subject. I endorse his remarks and fully concur with his conclusions. I feel sure that the removal of the railway station to a sito outeide the town would be a retrograde step and would detrimentally affect the business activities and commercial interests of Hastings at a time when it is recovering from the stress of hard times and the sOtback it got at the time of the -edrthqUake in 1931. I think the ercction of a new station is long overdue as the present structure is not adequate for the increased traffie, nor.is it in keeping with the risiftg importance of the town. .But I would rather put up with the present Station and its inconvenieiiCes than have . a new stmctnre erected eutside the town boundaries. "Old Resident." has shbwn how business houses and firrtis, aS Well as public officc-s and financial institutions, have grown up in the vicinity of the old station, and it would be a sOvere blow to t-hoso indiyiduals and companies who havo established Tuisinens and industrial entorprises near the commercial centre of the town to find that, after sinkiixr their capital in premises and machinBry nn a loCnlity convenient to transport facilit-icS, such facilities should be taken awav from them. / Tn 191,". wn wero yiven to understaiul that the raihvay anfchdrities ptopbfeedto orect a new up-to-date Station r little rf "9

to the north of St: Aubyn street, and we acquired properties and built our houses eo as to be near the. railway centre. ThiS has been the case partieularly with those who have built since the earthquake disaster and Who kre at present B'uilding. The question of reducing rieks of aecidents and of hoiding-up- traffie at level crossings ds one for the raiiway experts to deal with.- Invercargill is much larger than Hastings, and express trains cross (sev-en streets between its eastern boundary and the railway station without undue danger or inconvenience to trafiic. In Hastings the blocking of traffie and liability to aecident are due not to the passage of passenger trains but to shunting operhtions in the yards. Were the Hastings railway station placed to the north Of St. Aubyn street, as planned in 1913. with the yards and sidingS to the north of it, there ' would need to be no • shunting or unduly long stoppagee on any of the street crossings. It inight even be found pfactic&ble to construct a subway under the lihe at St. Aubyn street. I feel sure the business people of Hastings will take A strong stand hgainst any attempt to shift the station eouthwards to Tolletaache toad. Befote long much of Our Hastings traffie Will be northWards to Wairoa and Gisborne, and why shouid we be forOed to travel a mile aiid a-half soutll in order to cateh a trdin to go north? Our thaiiks are due' to Messrs Baird, Hart aiid "Old Resident" for opposing the removal of the station away from the centre of the business and commercial life of the town. — Yours, etc.,

Hastings, June 30, 1937.