TARANAKI AND AUCKLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1933, Page 9

TARANAKI AND AUCKLAND

THE NEW RAILWAY SCHEDULE SPEEDING UP OF MAIL SERVICES. HOW THE CHANGES WILL OPERATE The inauguration of the New Ply-mouth-Auckland night express train service from Auckland on Sunday will mean a marked improvement in ina “ deliveries between the Taranaki and Auckland provinces. Three nights a week mails closing at Auckland early m the evening will be available at Taranaki post-office boxes before office hours next morning. The same applies in the opposite direction, and on the other days there will still be a saving of some hours. The outward dispatch to Auckland will give the New Plymouth business community a full day in which to reply to correspondence received from Auckland by the morning train. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays mails for Auckland will close at New Plymouth at 6 p.m. and at Stratford at 7.45 p.m. to catch the express leaving New Plymouth at 7.10 p.m., and Stratford at 8.31. That express links with the Main Trunk express at Taumarunui and the mails will be at Auckland by breakfast time. On Tuesday and Thursday the connection with the Limited will be made by the train leaving Stratford at 4.15 p.m. New Plymouth postings will go to Stratford by the 1.45 p.m. Wanganui train and mails on those days will close at New Plymouth at 12.45 p.m. and at Stratford, at 3.30 p.m. The old time-table will have to be relied upon on Saturdays,and Auckland mails will then travel to Marton by the morning’s. Wellington express, mails closing at New Plymouth at 7.15 a.m. and at Stratford at 8.30.

MAILS FROM AUCKLAND.

A similar improvement in service will be shown in mails from Auckland. The Auckland office will make up closed mails for New Plymouth and the principal towns of Taranaki, and these will leave Auckland ion the Limited each night at seven o’clock on three days a week (Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays) and will be available at Taranaki main line stations before breakfast next morning. On other days the connection will be made at Taumarunui with a slow train leaving at 3 a.m. for Stratford, where it will arrive at 10.50. Mails for New Plymouth will travel thence by the fast train, reaching New Plymouth at one o’clock. The connection for South Taranaki will be the north-bound Wellington express for mails going to Auckland, and on days when the Ohura service does not run the South Taranaki mails, in order to connect with the 4.15 p.m. train from Stratford, will have to close in time to be placed on board the fast WanganuiNew Plymouth train. Mails from Auckland, will on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays be placed on a slow train leaving Stratford at 5.20 e.m. and arriving at Hawera at 6.25.

What effect the additional trains will have upon mail services within Taranaki is not yet decided. At present mails that are not posted at Stratford in time to catch the north-bound express do not reach New Plymouth until. 10.30 next morning. The Stratford office does not observe the same range of hours as the New Plymouth office, and mails for transmission to New. Plymouth early next morning would have to close at Stratford by 8 p.m. In the other direction mails on the Auckland express leaving New Plymouth at 7.10 p.m. would reach 1 Stratford after the post office was closed. The matter is to be watched, however, and if the new time-table can be used without undue inconvenience and expense to provide a better and more frequent delivery additional services will be instituted.

Trains that have been working the line as far as Tahora have, of course, been utilised, for mails. The mail service to and from the towns on the Mein Trunk line will also be improved by the new time-table, as direct mails will be dispatched to and received from the principal distributing centres along • the route.