SUBURBAN RAILWAYS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 727, 28 January 1910, Page 6

SUBURBAN RAILWAYS.

;^v : ; -'/:/-. : /.//"/♦/ //T•-.vV:-/ The Minister for Railways seems to us to have taken up a wholly wrong position in replying to the deputation from the townships between Wellington and Paekakariki that waited upon him yesterday. He did not give in detail-any good reasons for refusing the three requests made of him: (1) That the people on the city side of Paekakariki should have an opportunity of:getting into . Wellington in time for business, .without requiring 'to get up very early to catch their train; (2) that the 5.20 p.m. train running at present to Johnsonville should.be sent on to Paekakariki; and (3) that a suburban service bo established between Wellington and Plimmerton. But that was because he has not considered the matter. He laid down a general principle,'however, which is just as intelligent "as the new time-table, the recent discussion; concerning which; 'by the way, ' has ; moved the Christchurch newspapers, to . point but. some inconveniences ,in,the' Canterbury district. The Department, so the Minister said, intends "to bring down the suburban area to 10 miles."'' : ''Every. centre' in:the', country," ho. added, ''is clamouring for the reduction wliich attaches to suburban fares, and the revenue cannot stand it." "If /suburban- services were.' granted wherever 'asked," lie said later in his reply, "the . effect on : tho 'revenuewould be . - something , .enormous," meaning , that the effect would be enormously bad. Nobody . can take . exception to/ tho opinion that .-/ if. sub- ■ urban services were granted "wherever asked" -.- the railways , would lose a vastly greater sum. every year than-they lose at present. But it; is' qiiito !; irrelevant, and' most un--candid, to dismiss tho meritorious demands for suburban, services by; talking of the trouble that would follow a mad surrender to every sort of unwarrantable, petition. To find: the Ministerial head of the railways system thinking of the possibilities of- loss, and looking at the .debit side of the' ledger; is. so novel, a spectacle ; that 1 one hardly .Hires to find fault with him. But there is. a vast difference between true economy and the economy that will- not expend money that will' bring in a good return. The .'Minister is ready enough to ; defeiid; the monstrous Midland Railway, .'and; to foster the pouring out of hundreds of thousands of pounds upon that hopeless project, but ue .recoils from.the ipro- : position; that' he; should Cultivate the suburban'traffic. For that is what his rigid "10-miles" ■ rule amounts to. Nobody can doubt that suburban services can be made extremely profitable with good management in some localities. . .What is required is that/the Department should make itself: acquainted' with the conditions of;the suburban areas—the natural history, as it were, of these districts. -. . It- should discover the prospects 'of development, and the .probable ; traffic. That, however,/ is just ;.what, the .catinot •'^o; while it' is managed by 1 a Minister who knows nothing of railroading, and whose officials ■'■ are so incapable of ; seeing ; or. thinking,, beyond their 'printed- forms that when-j' ever a little, intelligent prospecting has to b'o done the Minister himself must pay "a'personal .visit" .to' the locality ; concerned. Until the railways ,are pila.ced'i' under •..expert, control,' and : run as .a, business concern ' alive tk) possibilities, we. shall continue to lose half a million a year on the system. . /.,," v' ;