THE LYTTELTON TUNNEL.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20643, 15 February 1929, Page 8

THE LYTTELTON TUNNEL.

The substitution of an electric railway service for the steam-propelled train on the Christehurch-Lyttelton line is an event upon which the people of Canterbury have evei'y reason to congratulate themselves. Comparatively short though the tunnel between Christchurch and Lyttelton is, the journey through it by a steam train was always attended by more or less of discomfort. When it was preceded by a bad " crossing ” from Wellington, the passengers by it were distinctly to be commiserated. The fact that this discomfort has had to be suffered for nearly sixty-two years will intensify the feeling, of relief with which the travellers by the train will welcome the beginning of an electric passenger service. It was the development of the hydro-electric works •at Lake Coleridge that first afforded any real promise that the system of steam traction might be replaced by an electric service. The occurrence of the Grea’t War necessitated a postponement of the consideration of any plans for the electrification of the tunnel, but the provision of an electric train service through the Otira tunnel had already been determined upon, and when this service was successfully inaugurated in 1923 the hopes that electric traction might similarly be utilised in the Port Lyttelton tunnel were naturally strengthened. To Mr Coates, in his capacity as Minister of Railways, is due the decision of which the consummation was witnessed yesterday. All the expectations which the people of Canterbury are building upon the opening of the electric service between Christchurch and Lyttelton may not be fully realised, but