POSTAL SORTING ON TRAINS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28822, 17 February 1959, Page 10

POSTAL SORTING ON TRAINS

50th Anniversary ‘The Press' &*pecuM Service AUCKLAND, February 18. When the Limited expresses pulled out of Auckland and Welington on Saturday evening they carried, as well as ordinary mail, about 20,000 special letters and envelopes bearing the significant date stamp of the 50th annivers-x ary of the railway travelling post occurred yesterday. As usual two postal attendants in each express sorted mail for various destinations. This work has been going on as long as the Main Trunk, line. has linked the cities.

Before the line was completed, mail went from Onehunga to New Plymouth by sea and then by train to Wellington, which took from 36 to 48 hours. Now it takes only 11 or 12 hours. Until the 1940’s the travelling post oipce was linked to the train immediately behind the engine and suffered from being the first part of the train to strike a slip or other obstruction. It had more than its, share of misfortunes and is now attached to the back-*of the train.

About 1918, a postal employee was killed! when the train was derailed by a slip at Mataroa.

Until the . war. three men were employed sorting the mail on the journey. During the war two men were employed and the secondclass mail was sent down by goods train. This system still prevails.

With the arrival of airmail services much of the personal mail was diverted to the faster routes. The business community, however, still largely supports the railways travelling postal service. Letters posted in Auckland one afternoon and sorted on the train can usually reach the person to whom they are addressed'* in the following day’s delivery.