The Railcar “Aotea” at New Plymouth.

How can Taranaki, the rich North Island dairying district over which Mount Egmont presides, have the best possible use of the new standard type of railcars now made available by Railway enterprise?

This was, in effect, the problem set the Railway Administration and, through it, the various civic authorities, associations and other representatives of the people in the Province most nearly concerned.

The General Manager of Railways (Mr. G. H. Mackley) took the most direct course to discover and clarify public opinion.

The object was to arrange a through run between New Plymouth and Wellington which would enable visits to either centre to be made with the least loss of business time. For travel not specially concerned with this aspect the day-time express services, of course, meet general requirements. The Department submitted alternative schedules for the railcar to the local bodies and interests along the route affected—an “A” timetable that got travellers to the terminal at either end near midnight, and a “B” timetable that landed them in time for breakfast, after the 251 miles run.

The consensus of opinion amongst the authorities consulted was so strongly in favour of the “A” or “evening” timetable in preference to the “B” or “all night” run that, following a demonstration trip on the 15th March from Wellington (dept. 5.13 p.m.) to New Plymouth (arrive 12.50 a.m.) a public meeting called by the New Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and attended by representatives and spokesmen from all the area between Wanganui and New Plymouth voted unanimously in favour of the “A” or evening schedule.

Of this preliminary run under service conditions the “Wanganui Herald” said:

“A silver streak of railway efficiency,

A group of representatives who attended the meeting at New Plymouth. Seated (left to right) Mr. G. T. Wilson (Superintendent of Transportation, N.Z.R.), Mr. F. L. Frost (M.P. for New Plymouth), Mr. E. C. Hayton (Chairman, New Plymouth Chamber of of Commerce), Mr. J. H. F. Cotterill, (M.P. for Wanganui), and Mr. G. H. Mackley, C.M.G. (General Manager of Railways).

Aotea, railcar R.M. 30, cut the Wellington-New Plymouth timetable from nine and a-half hours to seven and a-half hours.”

A practical demonstration of the value of the new railcar service, which is to be commenced from New Plymouth on the 16th April, was seen in the fact that the General Manager, accompanied by executive officers, was able to attend the New Plymouth meeting on the morning of arrival there, inspect the New Plymouth sea-front protection works now being carried out by the Department, examine the site of the proposed yard improvements in the vicinity of the wharves, and various other works planned or in progress, and return to Wellington the same day on the accepted schedule for the railcar service, i.e., leaving New Plymouth page 60

Railway protection works in progress on the New Plymouth sea-front.

at 3.40 p.m. and arriving Wellington at 11.33 p.m. (7 minutes ahead of schedule time).

From Sunday, the 16th April, standard railcars will leave New Plymouth on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3.40 p.m. (Wellington arrive 11.40 p.m.) and from Monday, 17th April they will leave Wellington at 5.13 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and arrive New Plymouth at 12.50 next morning.

An important feature of the new railcar service, from the visitor's aspect, is that, without loss of ordinary working time, one may travel from Wellington to New Plymouth on Friday night, have Saturday and the greater part of Sunday in the district and be back in Wellington on Sunday evening.

Those who are aware of the charms along the route of the New Plymouth line from Marton, touching amongst other places of interest those progressive civic centres of Wanganui, Patea, Hawera, Eltham, Stratford and Inglewood, will realise the opportunities provided by this new service for visiting in this great dairying area. New Plymouth alone is an unfailing magnet as a garden city of great beauty and historical interest, but when Mt. Egmont is added with its mountain houses (reached from Hawera, Stratford and New Plymouth) and its gracious range of scenic attractions, its sports and its pastimes, the appeal of Taranaki to the traveller becomes irresistible—given suitable transport. This the standard type of railcar provides in the most pleasing form. But its main achievement will be in the closer industrial ties between the Capital City and Taranaki which the convenient timetables of the new railcar service make possible.