Last Train From South

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31363, 8 May 1967, Page 1

Last Train From South

No trains will move in the Canterbury area from 7 a.m. today. The last to move will be the express from Invercargill which will arrive at Christchurch at 6.58 a.m. The only other train this morning is the express from Picton due at Christchurch at 5.16 a.m.

No waggons would be shunted to or from the wharves at Lyttelton today, the district traffic manager of railways (Mr M. R. Leineweber) said last evening. Nor would shunting engines move in the Woolston, Christchurch, Hornby or Sockburn yards,.

Yesterday all goods trains in the Picton, Christchurch and Timaru areas that would not have reached their destinations by midnight were cancelled. All goods and mails were removed from the expresses running between Christchurch and Invercargill and the night expressgoods trains between Picton and Christchurch. These trains carried'passengers and their luggage only, and ran to their destinations as originally agreed by the Railways Tradesmen’s Association.

The Engine Drivers, Firemen and Cleaners’ Association had decided no shunting engines would be manned in the Lyttelton, Woolston, Christchurch, Hornby and Sockburn yards after midnight, Mr Leineweber said. Indications were that the only goods which would be available for delivery at these stations this morning would be those already in goods sheds or in railway waggons which were accessible to road vehicles.

Some vegetables and fruit consigned from Christchurch to southern stations would have to be picked up at Christchurch by the consignors, he said. As far as he knew, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants members would work goods sheds this morning.

The department hoped to

keep everybody not on strike usefully employed, and had several different projects in mind, including decimal currency courses and tidying-up, Mr Leineweber said.

No Roster Shifts Railway traffic branch employees will not work rostered shifts during the strike of the Railway Tradesmen’s Association. A meeting of the Canterbury branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants yesterday was very concerned that the railways department had cancelled rostered shifts of all workers in the traffic branch, and instructed them to report for work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the strike, the secretary of the branch (Mr J. F. McDowell) said last evening. The meeting had felt that to enable the department and members to get back into top gear as soon as possible after the stoppage, the traffic branch workers should have been told to report for their normal rostered shifts, Mr McDowell said.

The branch had offered to co-operate with the department in every way it could, and got in touch with the district traffic manager (Mr M. R. Leineweber), who got in touch with the assistant general manager of railways (Mr J. H. 0. Tiller), Mr McDowell said. Mr Tiller, however, had replied that the traffic branch staff were to report for work as instructed, and that they would not be paid for rostered shifts, he said.