Many bus routes shortened

Press, 5 July 1977, Page 3

Many bus routes shortened

Flooding and traffic congestion greatly hindered! Christchurch buses yester- , day, particularly on the St! Albans Park and Ferry Road routes. Although no bus services) were cancelled, many were! either cut short by several, stops or else lengthened by! extensive detours. Flooding at Opawa Bridge! disrupted several services. j The Opawa service .was! forced to end at the bridge,; and the Lyttelton bus trav-i eiled via Ensors and Ferry! Roads until normal services I resumed over the Opawa Bridge after 3.30 p.m. The Beckenham service was also curtailed as the bus was unable to cross the

■, Heathcote River to Bowlienvale. But worst affected i ■.was the St Albans Park ser- i 'vice, according to the traffic i 1; superintendent (Mr J. Shank- I j land). < ; “Buses had to by-pass i 11 Flockton Street, which was] J blocked by severe flooding, |i band detour a block down ; Francis Avenue,” he said. ■ I Patronage of the buses.' (had been “minimal.” The >!few passengers had been , I “very tolerant of the) •! delays”. ; i ■I “Often the buses couldi travel at no more than 5 or) i 6 km/h. Not only did the 'drivers have to consider; yother traffic, but they also) J had to remember the effect! : J of waves on nearby houses. 1

Mr Shankland said that, only one bus of the 160 on! the roads broke down in the! surface water yesterday. The bus was being driven, without passengers, to the terminus at the time. I Only minor delays were ' caused to Canterbury train services yesterday, mainly by surface flooding in : Christchurch railway yards. All main rail links remained open, said the Rail|ways district traffic manager | (Mr C. S. Roscoe). I “There were no major I delays or problems,” Mr Roscoe said. i Although Christchurch [Airport remained open all day, it suffered delays as a 'result of the closing of_Wel-_

ilington Airport. Four Wei-1 llington-bound N.A.C. flights! band three in-coming flights : were cancelled before Rongotai opened again at 12.30 p.m. The backlog of 450 passengers waiting to fly to Wellington was cleared, without extra flights, by the end jof the afternoon.