RAIL ALTERNATIVE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 20, 4 September 1946, Page 5

RAIL ALTERNATIVE

HIGHWAY TRAINS LINK WITH GISBORNE - ■ -vW-r** The possibility that Diesel-power-ed highway trains will run between Gisborne and Taneatua, to link Gisborne with the Auckland district, was envisaged in an address given on Monday by the Minister of Works Mr R. Semple, when laying before the delegates at the Napier conference of local authorities of the Hawke’s Bay-Gisborne districts his department’s 10-year plan for works development. The Minister referred to the proposals which had been made for forming a railway connection between Gisborne and Auckland by completing the rail link between Motuhora and Taneatua. It was well-known that this line would run through very difficult and hilly country, said the Minister, this involving heavy expenditure. Nevertheless, the problem of improving the connection still remained, and it was proposed to investigate fully the alternatives that might exist before the Government committed itself. One alternative solution involved the extension of determination of existing railheads and the construction of'a modern well-aligned and graded highway to permit the operation of 'heavy transporters conveying rail containers between the railheads. As the work involved would be almost wholly in the Bay of Plenty, he added, the matter would be dealt with more fully in the regional plan for that district.

£6,000,000 on Present Costs When the deputy-commissioner of works, Mr T. G.. G. Beck, spoke later he gave further hints of what is in the sphere of possibilities in respect of the Taneatua-Motuhora link.

Mr Beck said that the gap between Motuhora and Taneatua had been surveyed many times by departmental engineers, and with each survey the magnitude of the task presented by railway construction had become more apparent. In the light of the latest surveys, the cost was estimated at about £6,000,000 on present prices, said Mr Beck. The department intended to have still further surveys made, however.

There was a possibility that new methods of road haulage might be used to connect the railheads, or Gisborne itself,. with Taneatua, using Diesel-powered transporters to haul trains of highways vehicles over a first-class highway on the lines which had been developed to a high state of efficiency in the United States. Surveys would have to be made to see whether a better highway could be constructed than that at present crosing the Raukuamaras.