BUSY RAILWAY STATION

Matamata Record, Volume XIX, Issue 1787, 30 November 1936, Page 6

BUSY RAILWAY STATION

MORRINSVILLE JUNCTION More Through Trains in Future When the . Railway Department’s new time-table comes into operation in a week’s time several more trains will pass, through Morrinsville Junction railway. station. Already over 20 trains a day pass through Morrinsville, but the Railway Department is adding several goods trains in an endeavour to provide a quicker and more convenient service for the' Rotorua, Thames Valley and Bay-,-of Rlenty lines. In’ future Morrinsville station will be open for 22 out of the 24 hours of the day. This will mean a rearrangement of the staffing, and an additional clerk, Mr. J. C. Milnes, of Newmarket, will be joining the staff .

One of the extra goods trains from Auckland will pass through Morrinsville at 3.30 a.m. and arrive at Rotorua at 8.40. Another goods train bound for the Bay of Plenty will pass through Morrinsville at 4 a.m. , . . ,

The Morrinsville shunting train which now makes one trip a day to Te Aroha setting down and picking up trucks at the small stations, will in future make two trips. The effect of these time-table alterations will be that goods delivered at the Auckland goods-shed at 5 p.m. will be in Rotorua, Tauranga and stations along the route by the time business people are opening up their Railway Departmeiit should be able to compete on better terms with road services which carry goods from Auckland to provincial towns. This speeding up of the railway freight service will certainly be appreciated by people in this district, who have always been fairly extensive users of the railways. LIVESTOCK BY RAIL

Just how important a centre for livestock Morrinsville ~ has now become is shown by the latest returns for Morrinsville railway station for 12-months period, which were made available to a representative of the Morrinsville Star by the stationmaster, Mr. G. A. Watt. Railed away from Morrinsville and the nearby smaller stations which Morrinsville accounts for were 51,118 grown cattle and bobby calves, and 156,548 sheep and pigs. This a total of over 200,000 animals leaving Morrinsville district in the 12 months. A large proportion would be, fat stock going to the freezing works, and the balance would be store stock bought at the Morrinsville sales and being forwarded to new pastures. Livestock unloaded from trains at Morrinsville comprised 18,683 cattle, mostly station-bred cattle from the East Coast, with a fair number of Taranaki dairy heifers; also 130,647 sheep, the greater proportion being breeding ewes from the East Coast. Morrinsville’s steady growth as a stock market has been reflected in the increasing numbers of stock brought by rail to the saleyards and trucked to distant stations after the sale.