TARANAKI'S RAILWAY NEEDS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 305, 18 September 1920, Page 7

TARANAKI'S RAILWAY NEEDS

THE NEW PLYMOUTH EXPRESS.

I " Tho trade c{ tho port of New Plymouth I 'has increased so greatly during I the past, year-or. two that the railway, .accommodation and facilities are now quite inadequate to deal with it. The need for prompt improvement was put before the General Manager of Eailways yesterday by Mr.. T..C. List (actingpresident of. tha .Taranaki Chamber of Commerce),' and Mr. J. E. Stainton (president of the Taranaki Employers' Association). They pointed out that the mileage rate, on goods between the port and the town, .was double that of other tfort railways, and suggested it should bo ' reduced. ■ They also stressed the need i for. improving the train services in Taranaki, which they declared to be little better .now than twenty years ago, though' Taranaki was perhaps the most' prosperous and enterprising part of tho Dominion.,. The time had also .come for speeding-up the mail train between Now Plymouth, and Wellington, which might be done by cutting out the unimportant stopping-places. The train compared very unfavourable, in comfort and convenience with' the Main Trunk and the South IslamU mail trains. In winter thero was no heating; - even . the old foot-warmers having been, withdrawn. , Mr. M'Villy, in reply, said the rapid -development' of .trade at New Plymouth was responsible for the-present position. The Department had prepared plans that he hoped would cope with tho needs of the. placo for the next twenty or thirty years. _ He recognised, however, that something must be dono at once to relieve the pressure, and he promised that it would be as. soon as means permitted. Labour and materials were very scarce, and he mentioned that his Department could find employment on extensions alone for 25C0 men for the next ten years. He would look into the port charges and 'see what could bo dene. In regard to the provincial train services, he recognised the necessity for improvement, but again _ this was a matter of labour and materials. The express train could he. accelerated by cutting out some of the) minor 6'topping-places, and he suggested that tho districts affected should first agree .to- this, and then the Department would give tho matter favourable consideration. Ho-.mentioned that two effictrs were now ...engaged in investigating and reporting upon the mail train services with a view to improving them. The foot-warmers had been taken off the mail train because of tho shortage of coal) but the Department intended to instnl a. steam-Seating system on tho New Plymouth express, and lie expected this would he done before next winter.

Mr. M'Yilly intimated that ho would visit Taranaki during the next or the following week end. •