FRANKTON STATION

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20512, 31 May 1938, Page 8

FRANKTON STATION

For a long time efforts have been made by the people of Hamilton to secure modern railway station facilities at Frankton, and the Chamber of Commerce, representing the business section of the community, has been most persistent. It has evidently taken to heart the advice once given to a deputation by the late Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman: “Keep agitating,” and it is extending its operations. The local bodies controlling the counties of Waikato, Waipa and Raglan, thus including all the territory immediately served by the station at Frankton, have given their support to the movement and the comment of the members was both outspoken and welcome. The Chamber can now give the railway authorities convincing proof that this request has the support of the whole district. It is not simply a Hamilton demand, but comes from town and country, and is based on a knowledge of what existing conditions are and on inconveniences experienced. The wet weather accentuates the need for something to be done without delay. Elderly people, women with children, and all who have either heavy or bulky luggage to carry, find the present means of access to and egress from the station a real ordeal, and the Raglan County Council’s opinion that for accessibility and general convenience the station at Frankton ranked with ihe worst in Ihe Dominion did not over-state the position. The Frankton station was not designed. Like Topsy it just “growed,” and the staff must have to work under tiding conditions. One visitor recently said the station reminded him of Washington, it was a place of “magnificent distances,” a condition not likely to commend it to the railway passenger. In wet -weather one may reach the footpath dry, because of the taxi-cab and bus services, but it is impossible to reach the platform without getting wet. There is the added risk of getting the full effects of heavy smoke from some locomotive, as one crosses the footbridge. It does not matter from what angle the thing is judged, the station at Frankton is inadequate. It is one of the busiest stations in the Dominion, and easily the most important provincial railway centre. The official status of the station proves that. But the facilities are out-of-date, and in many respects crude. If the departmental authorities have any plans to effect an improvement it is fully time that they were produced. A member of the Waipa County Council said that the facilities were the same as those provided fifty years ago. The Minister must recognise that his claims to have improved the service will be judged, to some extent at least, by what is done —or is not done —at Frankton. A policy of masterly inactivity there will serve to discount heavily whatever may be said -with regard to the provision of reasonable facilities for the travelling public.