Ferries well booked

Press, 13 August 1976, Page 1

Ferries well booked

Car bookings in Cook Strait ferries for North Island traffic during the Christmas period are almost completely filled. Sailings from Wellington to Picton during the last 11 days of December are booked out, and few sailings are not full on the return trip during the first half of January. The figures available mentioned only whether particular sailings were booked out, and did not indicate how full each was, said the relieving district manager of the Railwavs Department (Mr A. F. Burchfield) yesterday. Tile withdrawal of the Rangatira from the Well-

ington-Lyttelton run on September 14 is expected to aggravate the problem of heavy bookings in Cook Strait ferries during the Christmas period. On the Wellington-Picton sailings last season during the first half of December and the last half of January’, no sailing was full. During the first two weeks of January, cars could still go aboard, although 10 a.m. sailings were full. Of Picton-Wellington sailings during the latter half of December, up to half were booked out. Ev-.ing sailings were fully booked during the second week of January, and the afternoon sailing was two-

thirds booked throughout the month. The department required that Christmas holiday bookings be paid for in Sep + ember, Mr Burchfield said. This usually meant that spaces became available as people changed their plans. But he expected that few spaces would be available from that time on. Cook Strait ferries sail from both Wellington and Picton at 10 a.m., 2.20 p.m., 6.40 p.m.. and 10.40p.m., on at least five days a week. There are more than 100 sailings each way in a month.