HOLIDAY TRAVEL

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25380, 31 December 1947, Page 6

HOLIDAY TRAVEL

FEWER SPECIAL TRIPS THIS YEAR Transport arrangements for persons leaving Christchurch during the New Year holiday period do not appear to be as extensive as in previous years. The Railway Department is running some extra trains, but the Railway Road Services and private bus companies have had to curtail their arrangements for special holiday trips because of the shortage of petrol. The extra trains to be run by the Railway Department include an extra morning express to Dunedin on January 4, and special trains to Greymouth on January 3 and January 10. The night express to Dunedin, which runs on Fridays and Sundays, will also be run on Thursday, January 8. Although the infantile paralysis precautions had resulted in many reservations being cancelled, most of the vacant seats had since been re-booked, a railway official said yesterday. Holiday bookings for all trains were heavy. Special bus trips run to Diamond Harbour by the Railway Road Services each day during the holiday period last year will be run on Sundays only this year. Although no extra trips could be arranged because of lack of petrol, second and third vehicles will be put on the ordinary services if they are needed to cope with the demand, a practice followed throughout the year. Motorists passing through Christchurch on holiday trips will find it very difficult indeed to obtain supplies of petrol, according to the proprietor of a service station from whom inquiries were made yesterday. Proprietors of service stations would serve only their regular customers, he said, end as the allocation of petrol for January would be smaller than that for December, proprietors would have to conserve their stocks to make them last to the end of the month. Few children were travelling on trams at the present time, and it was • anticipated that anything more pac the normal public holiday timetable would be used, a tramway official said yesterday.

A representative of a leading passenger bus company said yesterday that although petrol restrictions had had their effect on his company's arrangements, many beach trips would be run and extra buses would be available if they were required.