28-HOUR JOURNEY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25347, 31 October 1945, Page 6

28-HOUR JOURNEY

WEARY TRAVELLERS

CHEERFUL UNDER ORDEAL About 300 weary passengers who set out from Wellington by the limited express at 7.10 p.m. on Monday arrived at the Auckland station at 11 o'clock last night, almost 28 hours later, compared with the normal trip of about 14 hours. All the travellers were anxious to get to their homes or hotels as quickly as possible and the l'o taxis which met: the train were soon tilled. ]u addition to the taxis, there were over .30 private motor-cars waiting, while an extra, tramcar was run from the station to Queen Street. One or two parties of people were left on the platform awaiting a second trip by taxis, but the great majority were away from the station within about 20 minutes. Attention to Babies Although very tired, most of the passengers were remarkably chcerlul and were reserved in their comment about the conditions. All agreed that the worst feature of the trip was naturally the long time involved, but that the railway officials had rallied around in splendid stvle and had done all they could to make the long wait more endurable. Included among the passengers were many women with babies in arms or small children, anil these, perhaps, suffered most. Some ol the women praised the way in which the male passengers and railwaymen helped to obtain milk or heat babies' tceding bottles. For the first, part of the wait of well over 12 hours, which started north of Taihape, insufficient milk was available to feed all the babies on the train. Several men scoured the neighbouring countryside in search ol cows, but as one remarked last night, "There wasn't a cow in sight." Milk was finally available when the train returned to Taihape but a good deal of difficulty was then experienced in heating it. Provision of Refreshments During the wait north of Taihape a bucket, of tea was made from supplies from a near-by railwayman's cottage, and further refreshments were provided by the Railway Depariment at Taihape and later at stations on the way north. While it was agreed that the officials did their best, the meals were said to be "scratch'' ones, although at intermediate stations alter transhipment by Army trucks it was obvious that employee,S had gone to considerable trouble to provide as appetising a meal as possible and to secure adequate supplies of' fresh bread. The heating system of the train continued to operate during the long wait, and most of the passengers passed the time sleeping, reading or talking. The water oil the train which brought the travellers from Hihitahi ran out during the trip and caused a certain amount of inconvenience.

"The worst of the trip was the long, boring wait," said one man. "No one knew what was happening. It was just like the Army, and if you waited long enough something was bound to happen." The passengers praised the work of the Army drivers who carried out the transhipment over difficult roads. The express which left Auckland at three o'clock on Monday arrived at Wellington at O.ofl o'clock last night, instead of the scheduled time of arrival, about 7 a.m. The limited express from Auckland on .Monday took 28 hours to reach Wellington, arriving there at 11.1 p.m. yesterday.