A NEW ERA

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 12, 14 July 1933, Page 5

A NEW ERA

TRANSPORT PROBLEMS

SUBSTANTIAL ECONOMIES

Practical schemes for the co-ordina-tion of road and rail services were briefly outlined by the Commissioner of Transport, Mr. J. 8. Hunter, in an' address to the Dominion conference of the New Zealand Farmers' Uiiiou. The first year'B operation of the Transport Act, be said, bad been estimated to have resulted in a saving of no less than 5,800,000 vehicle miles out of an estimated total of 21,400,000 miles. E pressed in operating costs, this represented a saving of £209,000, whicli ia effective for each succeeding year, and will amount to over £1,000,000 in the short space of five years. ; /

"Several further schemes of, co« ordinated services were put into operation during the current year, the most outstanding of,which was that effected in the services running between Wellington and Napier and New Plymouth. This scheme resulted in a saving of 500,000 vehicle miles per annum, out' of a total of 4 1,800,000 vehicle miles. Expressed in operating costs, this represents a saving of between £13,000 and £18,000 per annum."

These schemes for co-ordination, said Mr. Hunter, were all based on a com-mon-sense rearrangement of services to avoid duplication or triplication, while at the same time maintaining an adequate service. /They were economically; sound, and must lead eventually- to considerable reductions in fares.

"The Wellington-Palmerston North route was selected as a typical example. If a co-ordinated scheme could be successfully worked on that route, it was considered that the experience gained would point the way to similar arrangements throughout the whole Dominion. The flow of commodities, on motortrucks between Palmerston North and Wellington amounted to somewhere'in the vicinity of 60 tons per day or between 300 and 400 tons per week. Thif haulage involved a motor track milage of approximately 500,000 miles per year, which, at Cd per mile, would represent £12,500 in running costs alone of the motor-trucks. '

"Investigation showed, that this could be hauled in bulk on the railway; at a very much lower figure than this. The result was an arrangement whereby the railways agreed! to leave the loading and unloading of the rail* way wagons to the carrier or; road haulers and to have the loaded railway; wagon from Wellington to Palmerston North at £4 10s per truck load. :

"This arrangement suited the road hauler because of the cheapened haulage, it suited the railways because they, received revenue they would not otherwise have received, and it is in the public interest because it saves the wear and tear on the road.and above all because it must eventually lead t» lower real transport costs.

"This arrangement is at present ontrial. lam sanguine'lhat.it will proy* snecessful, and will be the forerunner of a new era in transport organisation in the Dominion. Under' it the rail* ways will assume the role of longdistance bulk haulers, for which they; are the s most efficient economically, while the short-distance collection and delivery business will be the sphere of the motor-truck." , ;, ;... :