RAILWAY FACILITIES.

Otaki Mail, 9 March 1923, Page 2

RAILWAY FACILITIES.

OTAKI TO WELLINGTON TKAIN. Air W. H. Field, AI.F., has written to the Hon. Minister of Kailwuy.- as follows: — ‘'Dear .Sir, —J have your letter inti-J mating that your Department cannot see their way t.o extend the running of the Sunday train to Levin. Under present conditions us to tune of starting and returning, i fully see your difliculty ! in complying with this request. If, * however, as I have already stated over and over again, the Department would i run this train at slightly increased • speed for a longer day. and at reduced passenger rates, it would pay hand- ! somely during the summer months to Otaki. and possibly even to Levin. Under present circumstances it cannot, of course, pay between Paekakariki and Otaki. If the train left Wellington at 0 o'clock, made the run to Otaki in two hour.-, and lefi there on the return journey at 5.30, or better .•'till, b p.m., during the summer months, it would, I IJ believe, carry five times the number j ' of people 'fat it at present does beyond | Paekakariki, and a very mpeh increas- ’ c.-d number to stations nearer town. I » enclose a clipping from the 44 Otaki ‘Mail" of the sth instun l , embodying } ~o pp Oi a letter v.-hifk bat* been wrii- ! ten to me on this sulijt.-'r. '“" u t j that petitions are in circulaticsp Throughout the district, begging for :: ! -till furttier tmproved service on this line. These petitions will reach you in : tine course. The new passenger train,

| leaving Palmerston at 0.35 a.nt. and re- j Turning from Wellington at *5 p.m. is J now the most popular train on the line, j The railway time-table when next issued must .-.how this train, for I am , continually meeting people who do not yet know of if.- existence. If it were ■ : possible for the train at present leaving Paekakariki at T a.m. to leave Otaki at say 6.45 and arrive in town at 8.45, cutting out the long and wearisome stop at .lohnsonville, the result ! would he an enormous development of the Manawatu coast beyond Pack akariki, and greatly increased revenue to the Department. I never expected it to pay at the beginning between Palmerston Xortk and Levin, but I believe that ! an increasing number arc taking ad- j vantage- of it even from those stations, and the intervening ones, and there are j cases where people motor from Wanga-, nui. Marion and elsewhere in the early '■ morning to Palmerston to catch the train, and thus have a day in Welling- J ton ana return home the same evening. • Another change I hope to hear of very J shortly is the extension of the suburban service to Paekakariki.—Yours, faithfully, W. H. FIELD.”