SLIP ON MAIN TRUNK LINE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2958, 22 December 1916, Page 8

SLIP ON MAIN TRUNK LINE

ouii v/ix m/iin iivuniv « EXPRESS TRAINS DISORGANISED. By Telegraph—Press Association.. Auckland* December 21. Owing to slins on the Main Trunk line the express to Palmerston, leaving at 7 p.m., was cancelled, and both the evening south-bound Main Trunk trains «erc also cancelled. The Department decided to disuatch a special fo the scene of the slip betwpen Paorata and Rimciman, 25 miles south of Auckland, at 2.30 a.m. to-morrow. Passengers will there be transferred to another train and conveyed to Pukekohe at which station' two Wellington-to-Auckland expresses are held up. One of these will return to Wellington with passengers and mails from Auckland. It is expected that it will take a week to clear the slip. TRAIN RUNS INTO THE SLIP. THREE CARRIAGES DERAILED. „,, Later. the slip was more serious than at first supposed. About four thousand tons of earth was displaced. The slip fell in front of the express from Rotorua to Auckland, and the train ploughed its way into the slip with great force, the engine being forced fifteen feet up the bank, where it remained. Three carriages were derailed. The passengers were shaken, but none were injured. Subsequently the train was removed from the danger zone. The passengers had an unenviable experience in reaching the relief train which was sent out from Auckland. It will take a week to clear the slip. The train time-table is uncertain and the service is disorganised.