RAILWAY TRAFFIC FROM WHAKATANE WILL BE BUSY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 32, 13 December 1948, Page 5

RAILWAY TRAFFIC FROM WHAKATANE WILL BE BUSY

Holiday Bookings Filling Rapidly

Although there a;re still ample seats available on trains out of Whakatane West from now, right through the holidays, reserves on the Road Service cars are beginning to fill rapidly, the Beacon was told by the railways at Whakatane yesterday. However, with the approach of holidays it is expected that both services will be almost fully booked. A perusual of the bus bookings shows that they start to increase from next Saturday until right up to Christmag where they are very heavy. Later in January they begin to ease off. Both the train and road services from Auckland to Whakatane near Christmas, are now almost fully bodked out, and it would appear that many people intend to spend their holidays in the district To cope with the expected heavy traffic over the holidays, the Road Services has plans to use extra buses. The ordinary runs will continue every day except Christmas Day, when the early bus only, will leave Whakatane for Rotorua. The reservations on trains from Taneatua begin to get heavy from about December 20. But there is, at present, ample seats as from Thursday trains will be running every day. They continue until December 25, when they then revert to the ordinary service until January 3 when, they begin daily runs again until January 8. From present indications it looks as though traffic in and out of Whakatane will be very heavy over Christmas and the New Year period. But, although there are many people leaving the district, there are also a large number booked to come in. Both Whakatane hotels report that they are fully booked through the holidays.