BUSY RAILWAYS

Waikato Times, Volume 118, Issue 19765, 21 December 1935, Page 6

BUSY RAILWAYS

SCENE AT FRANKTON, RECORD TRAFFIC LIKELY. HOLIDAY RUSH DEVELOPS. Order and organisation in a scene of seeming chaos and confusion. That, in a nutshell, describes the position at Frankton Junction Railway Station at almost any hour of the day. Since Wednesday the Christmas rush has set in in earnest and indications point to record passenger traffic over the holiday period. Frankton Junction is the busiest station in the Dominion, between 100 and 110 trains daily being handled during normal times. But over the last day or two there has been a veritable procession and the statlonmaster has hardly signalled one train off the platform when another appears on the scene. In order to cope with the unprecedented demahd for accommodation special relief trains have been put on. For instance a relief train arrived in Hamilton from Auckland at 12.42 p.m. to-day and contained many travellers who could not get seats on the Rotorua express. Another relief train left Morrinsville at 12.49 p.m. for Auckland well filled with holiday-makers. With the end of the school year many professional and business men and their families are leaving for pleasure resorts before the week-end and in addition to this class of traveller the ordinary week-end excursion has been greatly augmented. While official statistics and even estimates of the volume of traffic will not be available until after the holidays railway officials base their opinion that fresh records will be established on the intensity of the booking and larger crowds of passengers. One official stated that the increased bonuses 'to the unemployed meant that people who had not been on a train for five or six years had taken the opportunity to travel short distances to see relatives and friends.

Tourists on tho Move. Two speoial expresses laden with tourists off the Strathaird passed through Hamilton to-day en route to Rotorua. After visiting the thermal regions a large party of them will proceed by car to National Park and re-. Join the ship at Auckland this evening. Most of the tourists are Australians. Mothers trailing fractious children, harassed fathers burdened with grips, bags, suit-cases, coats and rugs, young men and women armed with still more luggage and sporting impedimenta, bustling porters and guards,—they were there in hundreds at Frankton Junction between 11.30 -a.m. and 1 p.m. to-day, which was one of the most hectic periods of the day. All the south and north-bound limited expresses have' been booked up for days while the Taranaki, Thames, Taneatua and Rotorua lines have been no less busy.

Though naturally handling a smaller volume than the Junction, officials al the Hamilton Railway Station have been hard pressed, the steady increase in goods as well as passenger business there Avorking up to a climax to-day Avhcn over 50 trains were dealt with.;