NEW RAILWAY LINE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25015, 8 September 1942, Page 2

NEW RAILWAY LINE

FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN FROM GISBORNE (P.A.) GISBORNE, Sept. 7. A crowd estimated at nearly 10,000 assembled in perfect spring weather this morning to witness the departure of the first passenger train from Gisborne. The ceremony was described as & semi-official one, since the line hat; not yet been taken over by the Railways Department, but no official recognition could have vested it with greater importance to the people of the Gisborne district, who saw in the depal ture of the train the fulfilment of many years of deferred hopes. The Minister of Railways, Mr R Semple, stated that the line from Napier to Gisborne had cost just over £6.000,000. of which nearly half was incurred in the construction of the Gia-borne-Waikokopu section. Had it not been for the opening of the railway, he said, Gisborne would probably have been cut off from the rest of the Dominion, as, in view of the rubber shortage, it was unlikely that any heavy service cars would be left on the load in six months' time.