NEW LINE OPENED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 3, 11 September 1942, Page 5

NEW LINE OPENED

GISBORNE LINK ESTABLISHED

FIRST PASSENGER TRAIN 1

A crowd estimated at nearly ten thousand assembled in perfect spring weather on Monday morning to witness the departure of the first pas-* sengcr train from Gisborne. The ceremony was described as a | semi-official one, since the line had not yet been taken over by the Railways Department, but. no official recognition could have vested it with greater importance to the people of the Gisborne district, who saw in the departure of the train the of many years of deferred hopes, or made the scene at the station more impressive.

School children were given a half-' holiday and business premises were closed for an hour. The station was liberally bedecked with bunting and a dais had been erected for the speakers, chief of whom was - the Minister of Railways, the Hon. R. Semple, who had made a special trip to Gisborne accompanied by the General Manager of. Railways, Mr E. Casey. ■ _ Cost fust Over £6,000,000 Mr Semple disclosed that the line from Napier to Gisborne had cost just, over £(j,000,000, of which near- j ly half was incurred in construction.- '' of the Gisborne-Waikokopu section. Had it not been for the opening of the railway, lie said, Gisborne would probably have been cut off from the re3t of the Dominion, as in view of the rubber shortage it was unlikely that any heavy service cars would be left on the road in six months time. Drawn by two heavy engines, which kept up a continuous whistI ling for several minutes, the train of ten carriages, carrying between 300 and 400 passengers, pulled out only a few minutes behind time en rout© to Napier and Palmerston, North. The present service is only a ■ Skeleton one designed to alleviate ' the emergency caused by the curtailment of road transport, and is confined to one- train daily each way. lit will be replaced by a more complete timetable toward the end of the year, when the last of the construction work will have been completed.