RAIL-MOTOR SERVICE

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1022, 12 July 1930, Page 5

RAIL-MOTOR SERVICE

NEW NAPIER-ROTORUA ROUTE AGREEMENT COMPLETED I’rcss Association NAPIER, Friday. The first important step in the coordination of rail and motor services in New Zealand has been made in Hawke’s Bay and will enable travellers by rail from any part of the Dominion to leave the railway at either Napier or Rotorua and. still using their railway tickets, travel overland by motor-car to Taupe or Gisborne’until they join the railway again at either Napier or Rotorua.. This step is the outcome of conferences between Mr. H. H. Sterling, general manager, and Mr. G. G. Stewart, officer in charge of the commercial : branch of the railways, and Mr. D. F. McArthur, representing the Hawke’s Bay Motor Company, Limited, Napier, and Mr. L. C. Ryan, representing the R.M. Transport Company, Rotorua. The agreement is to come into force immediately, in fact it will operate as from next Monday morning. It means that the railways will obtain a complete link for through passengers between Napier and Rotorua via the Taupo or Gisborne roads. It gives these through passengers the opportunity of an alternative route from Wellington or other station to the thermal regions. The motor service companies concerned will act as booking agents at their branches at Napier, Wairoa, Gisborne. Opotiki, Whakatane, Rotorua and Taupo, and their services will practically become integral portions of the Dominion’s railway system. The agreement: is for a. period of three years and provides for the companies combining with the Railway Department in a comprehensive publicity scheme showing the .benefits to the travelling public from the new agreement.