Main Trunk Expresses

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6728, 10 December 1931, Page 6

Main Trunk Expresses

PROPOSED TIME-TABLE ALTERATION Tho Railway' Department has under consideration the desirableness ol changing the hour of departure of the Main Trunk express, which at present leaves Auckland at 7.40 p.in., to 3.0 p.m. It is suggested that the express will leave Auckland on all afternoons except Sunday, arriving in Wellington at 7.42 a.m. next day. It is intended to add Levin to the stopping places. The following advantages arc canned for the proposed change:— (1) The wider margin between the running of the Limited and the ordinary express trains from Auckland. The ordinary express train now waves Auckland-40 minutes after the Limited, so that the best use of the two trains as separate means of transport :s at present not obtained. (2) An improved service from Auckland to Franlcton Junction and stations in the King Country., (3) A better service to and from National Park, passengers arriving from north and departing for south under the new proposal a little after 11 p.m. instead of 3.46 a.m. as at present. (4) Much closer connection for passengers from the Taneatua-Thames-Morrinsvillc area will be available for stations south of Te Kuiti and Taurnarunui, as the people from the former area who at present come up by the Bay of Plenty express have a long wait before they can obtain a connecting train southward. (5) People from Palmerston North area who wish to do business as soon as offices, etc., open at. 9 a.m. can reach Wellington at 7.42 a.m., in time to have breakfast before commencing business. (6) Better mail connections to the Hawke’s Bay, Wanganui, and Taranaki areas. The proposed arrival of No. 227 at Marion at 3.39 a.m. and at Palmerston North at 4.43 a.m. would enable mails to make train connections that would land the mails at New Plymouth at 1.0 p.m. instead of 7.48 p.m. and at Napier at 12.56 p.m. instead of 4.57 p.m. as at present. The Postal Department is not unfavourable to the proposed change. PROTEST FROM WANGANUI. The Wanganui Chamber of Commerce has decided to protest against the proposed alteration to the Auckland-Well-ington ordinary express, which would mean that the trains would leave Marton shortly after three o’clock each morning, states “The Chroniclo.” Tho Marton Chamber wrote in this connection, soliciting Wanganui’s support in a protest. It was pointed out at tho Wanganui Chamber’s meeting that an alteration as suggested would play into the hands of motor services. Mr. A. S. Burgess said that the request for a change had come from Auckland, for, he believed, two reasons—to enable passengers to reach Wellington earlier and to get to National Park earlier. He agreed that the hour of arrival at the Park was unreasonable as it was at present, but he could not see why the rest of the district should be penalised to make a change.