OUR RAILROAD “EXPRESS” SERVICE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9387, 5 March 1909, Page 8

OUR RAILROAD “EXPRESS” SERVICE.

*X gentleman who made the over* , land express journey from Auckland to Wellington on Friday and Saturday last gives the Dominion an amusing account of the discomforts ; Which he endured. The train was crowded, and on the day of starting it was impossible to book a compartment in the sleeping Carriage. Some of them had been booked a week before. The narrator found a place in a first-class” smoker,” but sleep was ont of the question, while cards and "a bottle of whisky entertained the other passengers, which they did all night; At an early station four ■ women, with a baby and a little girl, bfiarded the “smoker,” as there was no room anywhere else in the'train. One woxnan\ mit her f eo t °. u narrator’s se>,p). and her head on a * cushion and ,p^claimed, “I’m here , for the night.,?? A,'fine grey pumice dust kept coihing fri through the floor and the chinks of the doors and* windows, till the air ' was filled' with it, and the moths and mosquitoes were a constant torment. Early in the morning the train refused to take a hill ’curve*, and a number of volunteers got off and pushed , They failed to . move the train round the curve, and : it was put back half a mile and, a new start made, which provd successful. Half an hour was lost on * this account, and at Marton the engine broke down, and another had to be sent from Palmerston. This wasted another half hour, and the passengers arrived late at Wellington. ■ and grey from head to ‘foot with dust. The night journey was a serious strain for women and children,'for whom there was no room in the sleeping carriage. Some of the woman sat in one position, nursing their crying children, all night long. The narrator. Who is used to railway travelling, says that he Will take the boat t next time £be „ goes to Auckland.