BOOKINGS HEAVY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22588, 17 March 1948, Page 6

BOOKINGS HEAVY

EASTER_TRAVEL BY TRAIN AND AIR GISBORNE DEPARTURES "PRESENT indications are that there will be a large number of people travelling to and from Gisborne for the Easter holidays. Bookings both by rail and air are heavy.

Many parents doubtless will be taking advantage of Easter to travel with families on journeys which normally would have been taken during the Christmas holidays. The infantile paralysis epidemic and the travel restrictions caused plans for many Christmas holidays to be postponed until Easter. That many Gisborne people intend to spend as long a period as possible away from the town was fully illustrated last Friday morning when booking for the railcar leaving Gisborne at 4.30 p.m. on Thursday, March 25, opened at the Gisborne railway station. From an early hour in the morning a snail queue of intending travellers waited outside the booking office door and when 'he booking was opened the whole of the railcar space—nearly 100 seats —was reserved within a few minutes

“The Easter trains are filling up fairly quickly," stated a railway official this morning. This applied to both in tlie North and the South Island. The outward trains from Gisborne to Wellington on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. March 25. 26. and 27 respectively, are already almost fully booked. Extra Train Services

Inward and outward trains will run each day between Gisborne and Wellington between March 25 and April 1. No extra railcars will be put on between Gisborne and Napier, but it is expected that all dispatches will be double-unit. Only a few odd seats are available on aircraft out of Gisborne either north or south between today and the end of the first week in April According to a National Airways Corporation official, there will be little chance during the Easter period of obtaining a seat from Gisborne to Wellington, or Gisborne to Auckland. The same applies for travelling from the cities to Gisborne.

No extra aircraft will be flown during the Easter period to or from Gisborne. Had Easter been later this year, more airways seats would have been available, for after April 5 Lodestar aircraft, carrying five more passengers than the present Electra machines, will be used on the Gisborne services. At present there are plenty of seats available after that date.

Doubtless many travellers will proceed by service car, especially to Auckland. while many more will find enough petrol to travel at least a short distance away from Gisborne.