FERRY SERVICE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 116, 20 May 1925, Page 7

FERRY SERVICE

ACROSS COOK STRAIT IN AN HOUR

LINKING UP MAIN TRUNK RAILWAY SYSTEMS.

(EX TELEQr.APH.—PUESS ASSOCIATION.) BLENHEIM, 19th May. Considerable interest has been evinced in many parts of the Dominion in

a suggestion recently brought forward by Mr. IX. P. Fnrness, a prominent member of the Marlborough Progress League's Railway Committee, that as a first step towards completion of the South Island Main Trunk railway the recently-appointed railway board should be invited to consider the introduction, to coincide with the commissioning of the new ferry steamer Tamahine, o? a daily railway service between Picton and Christchurch, the gap between railheads at Wharanui and Parnassus being bridged ■■ by a motor •icrviee run . either by one of tho existing motor service companies- or by the .Railway Department itself.

Hf. .Furness's idea is that the introduction of the ferry steamer Tumahine iv four or five months will offer an exceptional opportunity of initialing an overland service on the lines suggested. Ho points out that the Tauinhinc, with accommodation for between 700 and 800 passengers, will cross the Strait between Wellington and Picton in three hours and less than one hour of this time will bo spent in tho open sea, the halance of the period being occupied by the ruu down Wellington Harbour and up Queen CharloUc Sound. Mr. Furness bclleven that reluctance to face a lon£ sea journey such as that between Wellington and Lyttelton, is so widespread among the travelling public that a large proportion of the inter-island passenger traffic would he attracted to the shorter route between Wellington and Picton. He points out that the scenic attractions of the trip from Wellinston to Chrißtchnreh via Picton and Blenheim are unrivalled in any part, of the Dominion. • 'Hie Clarence Bridge, Mr. Fnrness has ascertained, is expected to be ready for traffic .".bout August next, so that the big river will thenceforward offer no obstacle. He believes that if the service he has suggested is got into smooth running order before the opening of the Dunediu Exhibition at the end of- the year, the results achieved will be astonishing, and will at once demonstrate that the present "dead end" railways between Blenheim and Christchurch, on which £85,000 a year is now being lost to the Dominion, can be put on a paying basis.