Broken road link deprives both communities

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 1, Issue 20, 18 October 1983, Page 3

Broken road link deprives both communities

Mr Max Davies, who will be remembered as the owner/driver of Ruapehu Coaehlines which provided a daily weekday service between the Waimarino and Wanganui for 13 years, said that he objected to comments fi;om the chairman of the Wanganui Girls College Board which implied that the withdrawal of the passenger service earlier this year threatened the number of Waimarino students attending the College as boarders. Mr Davies, interviewed in Ohakune last week, said that even while running the service he had seen a decline in the number of pupils from 35 down to 1 0 or 1 2 over the last 3 years. Wanganui Girls College Board chairman, Mr Faul Mitchell, had been reported as saying that because of loss of a direct public road passenger service between ^Vanganui and the Waimarino, difficulties were being experienced by boarders already enrolled getting home for weekend leave and there is now a reluctance on the part of parents in the Waimarino to enrol their daughters at the College. The Waimarino is a big catchment area foF- our boarders, he said, and the loss of a large number of girls from the hostel would threaten the viability of the hostel and its staff. But Mr Davies said that he noticed the decline in student numbers using the Ruapehu Coach Lines Service began when the J?oarding fees were increased Bfid they have never picked oip since then. Max Davies, who now lives in Wanganui, explained that he had tried, almost

single-handedly, to run the service from Raetihi profitably for almost 1 3 years but it had existed on limited passenger patronage, some charter work and a little bit of parcel freight. He still operates a daily Wanganui- Raetihi-Ohakune-Wanganui service for freight. He was reluctant to close down the passenger service in March of this year as he saw a continued and even expanded demand for a daily Wanganui-Waimarino service in the future but he could not continue to carry

the burden alone without support from the community and members of the travelling public. He had given fair warning that the service was to close down unless there was an increase in passenger and freight patronage, he said. Regular patrons ( were advised of this six months beforehand. (Note: The trip between Raetihi and Wanganui was $4.50 ($9.00 return) and $5.00 single ($10 return) between Ohakune and Wellington.)