EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 626, 1 April 1929, Page 8

EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES

THE happy results of the active publicity campaign * inaugurated by the Railway Department in recent months have not been unaccompanied by embarrassments. So heavy lias passenger traffic been this Easter that the available rollingstock’proved barely adequate to handle it. The expedients to which harassed officials were forced in order that ends might be met show an intrinsic disability that must be overcome before the department can be sure of holding the increased support lately accorded it. It requires no penetrating insight to see that the travellers who complained when. antiquated facilities were forced upon them had an element of bare justice on their side. Some accident of hi me or circumstance thrust these, the unfortunates, into old carriages of pre-war or pre-boer war vintage, while other people engaged on the same journey for the same price travelled in a degree of comfort unimpaired by longitudinal seats and other indisputable marks of age. Unfortunately their situation was reduced to a question of travelling in the ancient cars or not travelling at all. The. success of the railway, staffs iu meeting the heavy requirements of an abnormal rush is a rare tribute to their skilful management. At the same time, the lessons of this Easter should not be lost on the highest authorities of the service. Energetic provision against the contingencies of future rush traffic should be made at once. It is better to accommodate distance travellers in hastilymarshalled suburban carriages than not to accommodate them at all. Even the travellers themselves will admit that delay and a measure of discomfort are preferable to the disappointment of being forced to stay at home. But the department’s success in coping with the rush would have a sharper edge if seasonal exigencies could be embraced without recourse to old equipment. Though the department is probably not quite as badly off as the directors of the Auckland tramway system, to which only one new car has been added since 1926, there is undoubtedly a call for more rolling-stock. Possibly the output of the new workshops will effect improvement before the next holiday season. Ami if some h-'aven-s.ent insurance against “lint-boxes” can be embodied, then sq la ucii the L&U LqLj,