EASTER TRAVEL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25802, 24 March 1945, Page 6

EASTER TRAVEL

LONG QUEUE AT STATION SOME WAIT ALL NIGHT The reservation office of the Dunedin Railway Station yesterday experienced its busiest day since the rush of Christmas and New Year bookings. In view of the announcement that no- extra trains will be run at Easter, a number of citizens sat all night on Thursday outside the booking office waiting for the doors to open yesterday morning so that they could book for {the Good Friday trains. Those who waited all night were rewarded by being able to obtain reservations, but those who came even as early as 5 a.m. to join the growing queue were disappointed in their quest. The first person to take up his allnight vigil arrived at the station at 8 o’clock, and by 10 o’clock he had been joined by about 12 others. Gradually throughout the night the queue increased in length and from dawn onwards there was a constant stream of arrivals. When the booking office opened at 8 a.m. a queue of more than 300 people stretched from the door of the office southwards as far as the overhead bridge. The difficulty of allocating seats was complicated by the fact that applications were being received from suburban and country offices and also from city agencies. Each such application was dealt with in turn along with those from persons in the queue at the station. At 8.30 it was announced that the express to Christchurch on Good Friday was fully booked. By 9 o’clock all seats on the trains to Invercargill and to Central Otago had also been filled.