MAIN TRUNK LINE REOPENED

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28016, 10 July 1956, Page 6

MAIN TRUNK LINE REOPENED

Slip Cleared North Of Taumarunui PASSENGERS TRANSHIPPED BY BUS (.Veto Zealand. Press Association) AUCKLAND. July 8. After being blocked for three days by a slip 20 miles north of Taumarunui. the Main Trunk railway line was cleared about 6 p.m. on Saturday. All trains were back on normal schedules today, but engineers of the Railways Department were still at the site of the subsidence, directing gangs to make the repairs permanent. In the Frankton-Taumarunui area today, special goods trains were run to clear accumulations of freight along the line. There were eight return services between Frankton and Taumarunui. and three additional services between Frankton and Auckland. Bus drivers helped refreshment staff to wash dishes at Taumarunui when train passengers were transhipped by buses past the closed section of the Main Trunk line during the week-end. They did the work voluntarily to ; help to ease the pressure while hundreds of people sought meals during the night. The bus drivers performed these unofficial duties in addition to their ordinary work of transporting passengers considerable distances over weather-worn roads and through thick fog. Buses were used to transport passengers from expresses on the Main Trunk line on Friday night. Bus transport was necessary for the Taumarunui-Te Kuiti section. There were about 220 persons on each of the four expresses. Staff at the railway refreshment rooms at Taumarunui and Te Kuiti had prepared for the increased influx of passengers. Facilities were strained at times, but the hundeds of passengers were served with remarkable speed.