EXPRESS SERVICE TO CHRISTCHURCH RESUMED TODAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 June 1950, Page 4

EXPRESS SERVICE TO CHRISTCHURCH RESUMED TODAY

Although the line has been opened since Friday, since when rail-car services have operated daily, the triweekly' express ’service between,, the West Coast and Canterbury was not resumed until this morning with the running of the first express train since May 25, the day before floods and storms washed out portions of the Midland line in the vicinity of Jacksons and damaged the bridge spanning the Waimakariri river near Cass, in Canterbury. Considerable work has still to be done to restore the line to its .normal state and care has to be exercised when trains are negotiating the damaged portions of 'the line. , Considering that this was the first express to run for almost three weeks, surprisingly 'few passengers were on board when it left Greymouth, and only five carriages were required to. .accommodate those travelling. Even then, the train was less than half full. Onlv 75 reservations for seats were received by the Railways Department and* it is estimated that the total number of passengers did not exceed 100. This number, however, would be increased when passengers from the Reefton and Buller line joined the train at Stillwater. A west-bound express also ' left Christchurch this morning for the West Coast, but the number of passengers is not known here. . Both trains are expected to be slightly behind time in reaching their destinations this evening. This morning s rail-car from Christchurch was a little more than an hour late.in arriving at Greymouth, the delay being caused by exceptionally heavy goods traffic to the east coast.