Floods cut railways

Press, 3 July 1979, Page 2

Floods cut railways

PA Auckland) Flood damage and the widening rail dispute disrupted rail passenger services in Auckland yesterday. Heavy rain at the weekend closed rail services north of Henderson and the Railways Department ar-, ranged a bus link to carry Helensville passengers home last evening. Officials said track repairs might not be possible until the rail dispute was resolved. Sixty metres of track are washed out between Helensville and Kumeu. Engineers were unable to get freight ballast from Wiri for repairs because goods trains from South Auckland have been cancelled. Other parts of the track between Waitakere and Henderson were damaged by slips, and staff were working to clear them.

11 Twenty one-man railway stations have been closed in > the Auckland region. These ■ include Tamaki, Tuakau and Mercer which are mainly involved with goods train handling and signalling. This would not affect pas- : senger services, according to -; the district traffic manager ' (Mr B. Potter). Flooding and slips have 1 blocked roads in the WaihiCoromandel area w'here the • storm brought down power and telephone lines. ‘ Flooding closed the Ka'’rangahake Gorge Road to ' Waihi at 4 a.m. yesterday 1 and a slip has cut the Kopu--5 Hikuai road to all but light ™ traffic. The Athenree Gorge on < the Tauranga approach is . also partly blocked by slips, y Telephone and power lines - near Colville were brought down and road access to the

isolated Coromandel community was cut. Flooding disrupted traffic between Waihi and Paeroa for several hours yesterday when a metre of water covered the highway at Queen’s Head at 3 a.m. It was reopened late yesterday morning.