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Railway Progress in New Zealand.
General Manager's Message.
Punctuality.
Our Obligation To The Travelling Public.

In this message I desire to impress upon all members of the staff the obligation of the Department to the travelling public in assuring as far as is practicable the punctuality of all trains.

In addition to the train crew and the stationmaster or officer-in-charge of the station, the porter, the shunter, the signalman, the train examiner, and the clerk-in-charge of the ticket office can all help in keeping the train,“on time,” or to regain lost time, by the value they place on minutes. The chain of operations associated with the movement of a train, say from Auckland to Wellington, resembles a cable wherein the weakness of any link affects the efficiency of the whole chain.

If time lost on the journey by any one train through lack of adequate preparation, or any other avoidable cause, concerned that train alone, the position would be bad enough. But when such delays react unfavourably upon other trains and related services—as they do—the whole time-table may be disturbed over a very wide area and for an appreciable length of time.

The difficulties associated with the operation of important train services over a single track are fully recognised and these difficulties have become intensified in recent years through the greater, density of traffic that is being handled. This makes the saving of minutes all the more necessary, for the opportunities to recover any time that may be lost are reduced as the volume of traffic increases.

Slips, floods and mechanical failures add to the difficulties of train operation but the public appreciate that occasional delays due to these causes are inevitable, and are prepared to make generous allowance for them. But delays caused through lack of preparation or organisation, or neglect in such matters as the prompt booking of passengers, the waybilling of parcels or goods, the labelling and proper placing of luggage prior to a train's departure, are not excusable, because by an adequate appreciation of the value of time and method such delays can be avoided.

Care and judgment in the stowing of vans to facilitate the discharge and loading of parcels, luggage and general road-side goods, at points en route is also necessary.

To all railwaymen I would commend the last four lines of Kipling's “If,” for that eminently practical writer may have had them in mind when he wrote these lines:—“If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty second's worth of distance run … .”

If you can, then you are likely to be a good railwayman and a good servant of the public, as well as a good mate in the railway team trying to do its best to keep faith with the travelling public by running trains to schedule.

General Manager.