EAST COAST RAILWAY.

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17320, 7 January 1928, Page 5

EAST COAST RAILWAY.

W,AIHI TO TANEATUA.

COMPLETION BY MARCH.

PAEROA-POKENO LINK NEXT. "Within two months it is expected that trains will be running- on the new section of railway line from Waihi to Taneatua, through the Bay of Plenty.

This will add another 85 miles of permanent way to the Auckland Railway District, and passengers will be able to travel direct from Auckland to Taneatua by train.

Work has progressed favourably on the various sections of the line through the Bay of Plenty, and the engineers, .Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth and Co., Ltd., are now ready to hand over to the Public Works Department that section of the line from Tahawai to Te Puna. This is the last stretch of the line through the. Bay, 15 miles in length, and completes the whole of the line from Waihi to Taneatua, including the, piece recently taken over between W T aihi and Tahawai.

The section of line between Taneatua and Tauranga is at present'being run by the Public Works, which has its own time-table. With the completion of the line through the Bay of Plenty and its being taken, over by the Railway Department comes the question of a nearer route from the bay to Auckland.

The necessary link will run from Paeroa to Pokeno, on the main line south of Pukekohe, across the Hauraki Plains. This will reduce the rail distance from the Bay of Plenty to Auckland by between 40 and 50 miles, and will save the long jdurney down to Prankton and back.

Already" railway officials ;have inspected the country over which this line will eventually run, and it has been surveyed for future use. The country is comparatively level, and the line across would not be a difficult engineering feat. A direct line from Paeroa to Pokeno would curtail the running expenses of tHe Department, and would make an easy link with Thames and the Coromandel Peninsula. j