TRUNK AIR ROUTES

Evening Post, Issue 11, 13 July 1936, Page 10

TRUNK AIR ROUTES

AUCKLAND TO SOUTH

THROUGH RUN URGED

WELLINGTON SILENT

Under the new transport legislation the issuing of transport licences, which ' formerly was considered by the Trans- ~ port Co-ordination Board, is in the | . hands of the Minister of Transport, the| Hon. R. Semple, and one of the most important proposals at present under consideration is for the establishment, l by Union Airways, of a new North Is- co land air service, from Auckland to Wei- m lington, with calls at New Plymouth and Palmerston North, to connect the n< two centres by fast aeroplanes cover- to ing the distance in three hours. The proposals placed before the Minister, through the Commissioner of ™ Transport,.are that the machines should $ v leave Wellington and Auckland daily tr at noon, and a consequence of such departure times would be that though a al passenger leaving Dunedin by the Union Airways Dunedin-Palmerston p( North service would be able to transter, at Palmerston North, to the proposed Wellington-Auckland aeroplane, A and so could reach Auckland the same k afternoon (at 3 o'clock), it would not ry be possible for an Auckland (or New Plymouth) air passenger to reach Dunedin until next day, "as the Palmerston North-Dunedin machine would . have long departed when he arrived at 1£ Palmerston North. Accordingly, lie would either have to wait at Palmers- ' ton North overnight, assuming that he wished to travel south by air, or .come on to Wellington and continue his jour- - ney to Christchurch or Dunedin by * the steamer that evening "and train next day. <- The Minister some time ago asked that representations should be'made by interested persons or bodies, to be taken into account when the proposals d came formally before him for approval or rejection. Wellington, which un- 1 questionably has a vital interest in the establishment of a trunk service, has C made no representations, but communications have been addressed to the C Commissioner of Transport by ' the ■ Auckland Chamber of Commerce,- the i Wanganui City Council and Development League, and by the Hawera.Cham-i I ber of Commerce and Aero Club. c Wanganui asks that a call should be' \ made there as a time-table call, so serving a large population without adding I more than quarter, of an hour to the time occupied by the Auckland-Welling- s ton run. £ Hawera asks that calls should be made there "on request," and urges ± that it is essential.that the time-tables should be amended to give through connections daily between Auckland and Dunedin. AUCKLAND-DUXEDIX SERVICE. It is upon this latter point that the Auckland Chamber of Commerce is making its main representations. "Any reductions in the travelling time between the Dominion's two principal centres (Auckland and Wellington) to three hours must be regarded as an important advance in communications," states the communication addressed to the Commissioner of Transport. "If, however, there is a practical way of achieving in the process a through national trunk service with the main centres of the South Island this should be seized upon. "Under the proposed time-table there will be a close connection between the present morning service from Dunedin to Palmerston North at Palmerston North- and the proposed WellingtonAuckland aeroplane. But the passengers and mails will have to ibe transferred from one machine to another. It seems that the mails and passengers travelling the longest distances shbuld be the last to b<» expected to change, and that it would be better, if practicable, for the Dunedin-Palmerston North machine to continue to Auckland. "On the southward flight the timetable now contemplated does not permit any connection being made between Auckland and South Island points by air in one day, and we suggest that the southward aeroplane should leave Auckland at.8.15 a.m. and continue 0:1 from Palmerston North to Dunedin,; a schedule about two hours later than the present Palmeiston North-Dunedin aeroplane. "If a call at Wellington is not pracat ticable for such through machines on in account of the present condition of the he Wellington Aerodrome, then the reey quirements of Wellington could be met at by feeder services through Palmerston irs North and Blenheim."