page break

General Manager's Message
Preparations For Summer.

In the railway year, the heaviest strain on our Service is made in the the last six months, for April to September is always a comparatively lean period, and the winter decreases travel. Hence, preparations for summer traffic are always important, and we now have comprehensive plans in hand for dealing with the accessions of traffic anticipated during the next six months.

Improved timetables have already been introduced in some important localities, as in the North Auckland district, with a view to giving improved transport or more suitable connections with through services, including regulated motor services running through areas not served by rail. The practicability of further improvements to a number of our express and mail services is also under review. Some of the thirty new locomotives now under construction will come into operation during this summer for dealing with the heavier trains and reducing “banking,” thus avoiding the loss of time incidental to this operation, as well as reducing costs in other ways. Complete sets of the new type of de luxe passenger cars, so generally popular, will be running on the principal trains throughout the summer travel period. This equipment, too, is a reminder of the Department's confidence in the public response to railway efforts to provide the best possible services.

It is hoped that the reaction from bad times, inevitable as soon as the depression is definitely behind, will create a general desire to travel, and from this, and the resultant trade developments, the railways may expect to obtain appreciable increases in traffic.

General Manager.