BLUE EXPRESSES.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 258, 31 October 1929, Page 8

BLUE EXPRESSES.

FASTEST MOUNTAIN TRAINS

N.S.W. • RAILWAY' MOVE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, October 25

New South Wales Government Railways executives have caught the colour complex. ." Their latest announcement concerns the projected use of blue expresses on the Blue Mountains run. These gaily coloured trains will be, according to official claims, the fastest mountain trains in the world. The first blue train—the Jenolan express, mainly for use by travellers to the Caves—will run from Sydney to Mount Victoria in two hours 20 minutes. It will stop only at five stations, and on many stretches it is scheduled to reach a speed of 60 miles an hour. In a few instances that' speed will be exceeded. The train will consist of five light carriages, with seats luxuriously covered in patterned • moquette, drawn by a super-heated locomotive, and will run only once a day—there and back. On the same date as the new Blue Train starts, two new fast expresses each way will commence running between ■ Sydney and Newcastle. These will cut the present journey by at least half an hour so far as other expresses are - concerned, and by more than an hour in the case of the ordinary fast trains. Introduction cf these new expresses to, the New South Wales service is an indication that the Department is beginning to realise that the only way to meet bus competition is to wean back the railway. travellers by giving them speed, and above all—rcomfort.