MAIN TRUNK JOURNEY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2226, 13 January 1921, Page 2

MAIN TRUNK JOURNEY.

CHRISTCHURCH CRITICISAf

“A VERITABLE NIGHTMARE,

Very dirty, inadequate, uulighfed lavatory accommodation is one of the outstanding discomforts of travel on the so-called express trains of the North Island Main Trunk service, says the Christchurch Star. Sleeping berths that provide for only a small proportion of the travellers force the bulk of the train users to spend a veritable nightmare in their own carriages in all sorts of postures, snatching a few minutes’ sleep between the constant banging of doors, the visits of the guard, and the midnight clanging of refreshment room bells at stations where nobody wants refreshments. The torture of a train journey to Auckland is long drawn out. The waits and stoppages arp so tantalising that the traveller wonders what a “slow train” would be like. Unclean lavatories are the principal cause of complaint. A roller towel and a few slippery lumps of soap are common property for the 30 washers if they like to use them. The basins are old and weatherbeaten, arid they soon become extremely dirty. In the daytime the light over the wash-basin is turned out, and it is possible to. be washing, or even shaving one moment and to be plunged without warning next moment into the inky darkness of,a tunnel.

The slowness of the express trains, making due allowance for the sleep gradients at various points, is really remarkable, and compares most unfavourably with the SydneyMelbourne expresses, which do a much longer distance in about twothirds of the time. Auckland is 426 miles by rail from Wellington, and the journey occupies 18 hours. This includes frequent stoppages, not only at important centres, but also several wayside stations, presumably for water or fuel, or to pass other trains. But the waits generally are so ltmg as to suggest that an express train in reality, and not merely in name, might knock a couple of hours off the trip..