TRANSPORT BY BUS

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28472, 30 December 1957, Page 8

TRANSPORT BY BUS

Train Passengers* Journey

Probably the biggest transportation problem solved during the heavy flooding on Friday was the delivery to their destinations of more than 750 railway passengers stranded at the Ealing and Hinds railway stations. Thirty-eight buses from Ashburton, Timaru, and Oamaru were used* to take passengers as far south as Dunedin. The two expresses which were to have arrived at Ashburton at 10 a.m. were delayed by the damage to the railway embankment at Rakaia, and did not reach Ashburton until about 5 pjn. The two trains continued southwards, but were halted, one at Ealing and the other at Hinds, when the approach embankment to the Rangitata railway bridge was declared unsafe just after the north-bound express had passed through. Buses from Ashburton, Timaru and Oamaru started to arrive after 8 p.m., and the last passengers reached Dunedin about 6 am. on Saturday Two articulated lorries from Ashburton were used to carry luggage, mail and perishable goods to their destinations Passengers on the north and south-bound night expresses travelled by bus between Ashburton and Timaru. The Rangitata embankment was repaired bv Saturday morning in time for a ?E ec . la '. ra “ traln from Christchurch to Washdyke..