COOK STRAIT “BRIDGE”

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23648, 4 November 1938, Page 12

COOK STRAIT “BRIDGE”

TRAIN FERRY SERVICE INSTITUTION ENVISAGED The institution of a train ferry service across Cook Strait is envisaged by the South Islands Travel Association, in a report on future plans to be presented to the annual conference in Christchurch to-day “It must be recognised,” the report states, “ that Cook Strait is one of the barriers to traffic to the South Island from the North Island. Elsewhere in the world it has been demonstrated that a water journey is a barrier, no matter how good the service across the water may be, and the. association must work strenuously to reduce this handicap. Anything which will bridge Cook Strait should have the energetic support of this association. To this end anything which will cheapen the cost of transport across the Strait will be helpful. In this connection the elimination of wharfage charges or the reduction of all wharfage charges for motor cars to a uniform scale throughout the Dominion should be sought at all times. It is possible to envisage the introduction of vessels engaged exclusively during the peak periods, at least, in the carnage of motor cars across the Strait “We can see that a train ferry across the Strait would be of tremendous advantage,” the report adds. “ Such a service must come in time, and it will involve a great development in Picton, the enlargement of which could be a big factor in making payable business on the South Island Main Trunk line. The train ferry is a * bridge,’ and South Islanders should regard this development as one in which the future of tourist traffic is directly involved.”