CORRESPONDENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10300, 1 August 1911, Page 6

CORRESPONDENCE.

RAILWAY MANAGEMENT.

[To The Editor.}

A& there ihas been a. lot of correspondence, etc., re the management, or imis-imanagemientt of our railways, I fear some of our worthy settlers may get the subject, on the brain, -and imagine that our district is the worst treated, in the world as regards railway arrangements. A writer in a recen'tily published book expresses Irc/ms-elf us follow*: "The prosperity of all Kent is crippled iby ia combine of two ilknia/naged and unenterprising Railway Campaniles, with no funds, for new developments, grinding out an uncertain dividend by clipping expenditure. . . The rolling stock is old amd dirty;. m.ucih of it is, iby imode'rn standards, abominable. The trains aire infrequent, and the sliiunttimg operations at local stations, witlh insufficient isidimgs .ant insufficient staffs, produce ia chronic dislocation and unpunotuality in the traffic that is exaggerated by the defects of direction, evident even or the very time-tables. The tnaims an not well planned, the conneotionE with .branch, lines are often, oxtremelj ill managed. The service -is bad tc itsi details. It is the exception- rathet tlhan tho rule to find a, ticket offie; in the- morning with change for a five pound note." So mucin for the south-east. JMow for a letter ipublisih,ed in a. local paper im the West • « England:—"Sir,— I bop© in youn travels the advertisement of- • the Midland Railway Co., which is hunj on the walls of their stations, 'Tra, vel by tMidiland for Comfort," oaugiht your eye,. In case -it 'has, lei me -say in, ,my opinion mover were the public so deceived as by such, i placard; ttlhe word 'dis' should be i.i front of the word 'comfort,' for tbi slow trains, main., line, a,re not heat ed by (steam from the engine, but bj the antiquated method 1 of foot-warm er,s, ofittener cold than hot, and leak ing, While on the loaal branches, no thing at all! Is it any wonder tra veHer,s by these catc(h chills -ant colds, for which, the Company is re sponsible ?, To partkailairise, take th-i Stroud -and Dursley bramcJieis. Thf latter (2 \ miles) is unique din railway history at this date; for hiere ther* are neither -signals nor telegraph no; telephone mmanuniration (betweiei Coaley Junction station- and Dursley though the lima ihas two level cross -iaigs over two .most important main roads. In ta case of misbaps the com pany's only means of commnnioatioi is by (hia,vding to borrow from one o; their own; porters his private ibiieyelrf to proceed to Dursley by .road—3; miles! Wihat a mean position foi any'railway company! The directors i, by tli© labsenoe of ittheir visits till .las: year, (on the 1-st July), being tlw ,' 11th year /since they visited the Dur -sley district, appear to think any thing/will do for tine, local public I but did Itfhey but see what a- sillj policy they pursue i nkeeping .people j from travelling they -would find theii I (returns very different. Sir, to trave j by the dVI.iR. -Cq.'s 'slow® ai& indLaatei lis a huge diiscomlfort, and can./ you [call it anyi#iing : but a 1 rail-way dis|:@e£k»-?: cbmplairiis eithei locally to, the. director,(!£;. iW. L, Harford, Old Bank, Bristol) living in our midst, or to headquarters, Derby, one's letters are treated with silent contempt, and not even acj knowledged."—l am, etc., i . ' J. 0 .ALPASS.