WEEK-ENDING BY RAIL

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 18 November 1927, Page 8

WEEK-ENDING BY RAIL

THE LATEST HOLIDAY FASHION The Wanganui “Chronicle” in a striking editorial draws attention to the succeess attending the Railway Department's latest innovation in the direction of popularising week-ending by rail. The article runs as follows:— “The complete success of the Wellington to Wanganui railway excursions at the week-end just past is a good pointer to one way of popularising the railways. An organised system of such excursions running on the various sections all over the Dominion could, indeed, be made a feature of our railway operation. It is true that there has been a certain amount of experiment in the same direction, but it has not been made a matter of general policy. Something more than cheap fares is required to induce the public to patronise such excursions to the point where they can be undertaken on a wholesale scale. “There must first of all be an attractive objective, and of these there are plenty. The four chief centres of course are a draw to the people of the provinces. Hut outside of them there are numerous places to which week-end excursions could be run—the Bay of Islands, Whangarei and its harbour. Rotorua, Napier. New Plymouth, and Mt. Egmont, Wanganui and its river, to mention only a few. “To transport a crowd of people to a given point and then dump them out to shift for themselves — which has been the method in past years—is no way to achieve a success. The modern tourist expects things done for him and looks to the tourist agency to fill his time. The Railway Department grasped this fact oh Saturday last Hotel accommodation was arranged for, and complete arrangements made for sight-seeing and for pleasant occupation of time once the passengers reached Wanganui. The co:■sequence was that no one was at > loose end, and everybody’s comfort and pleasure were assured. “Now thvo the Department has shown that it knows how to handle such a job, there is no reason why such trips should not he a feature of week-ends nil over the Dominion. Even apart from the question of financial profit, they would help to

make the railways more popular, a real consideration in these days when they have to meet severe competition. The Department is certainly to be complimented on the way it conducted last Saturday's undertaking and. if future affairs of the kind are as well handled by it, it need not fear any lack of patronage.”