NELSON RAIL SERVICE

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21411, 1 March 1935, Page 12

NELSON RAIL SERVICE

_i PERMANENT RETENTION ASKED LETTER FROM MR G. H. MACKLEY (SPECIAL TO THE PRESS.I NELSON, February 28. For some time the Nelson section of the railway service has been operating under a threat that if its revenue did not increase it would be closed. During the last few years a large motor transport business has been built up between Nelson, the Inangahua railway terminus and the West Coast. The Nelson Progress League, in its efforts to retain the rail service, submitted a proposal to the Railway Board for the provision of facilities whereby motor trucks carrying fruit and other produce from Nelson and returning with timber and coal from the West Coast could be carried loaded between Nelson and Glenhope on the rail. A reply was received from Mr G. H. Mackley, General Manager of Railways, to-day stating that, considering that substantia] reductions had already been made in the freight rates for general goods, and that attractive rates were offered for the transport of sawn timber, the board considered it had gone as far as it could reasonably be expected, in providing facilities at the lowest possible cost. In regard to the transportation of loaded trucks he stated that considerable expense would be involved in structural alterations to rolling stock and special loading banks. The board could not anticipate that the prospective additional business would justify the expenditure. The board hoped that with the existing rates a sufficient measure of patronage would be accorded the rail service to ensure a permanent retention of the railway. __ A long discussion "on the possibilities of the completion of the Nel-son-Inangahua section ensued, the following resolution being carried on the motion of Mr W. J. Moffatt, seconded by Mr F. G. Gibbs: "That in the event of the Government adopting an active public works policy, the league urges the continuation of construction on the Nelson railway at least as far as Murchison."