RAIL LINE OPEN AGAIN

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29182, 18 April 1960, Page 12

RAIL LINE OPEN AGAIN

Blocked For Five Days By Slips

(New Zealand Press Association)

GISBORNE, April 17. Rail-car, express gnd freight trains will resume running tonight on the Gisborne-Wairoa railway, severed since Tuesday night by 10 slips and one extensive wash-out betweeh 22 and 30 miles south of Gisborne. The restoration of the full service 12 hours ahead of the expected time was the result of a two-pronged mechanised assault on track clearing, involving cutting through the slips and the realignment of a section of the track round the lip of a 100 ft wash-out between Beach Loop and Opoutama. Bulldozer and dragline operators and other gangs worked round the clock in 12-hour shifts completing a stable track. Dragline crews will have to work well into next week to clear the debris from both sides of the line.

Heavy traffic is expected both in and out of Gisborne tomorrow to clear the backlog -I four days’ freight from Wairoa, and heavy passenger traffic south is likely by expresses and rail-cars. During the holdup more than 1400 passengers were transported by bus between Gisborne and Nuhaka.