RAIL COMPETITION

Hokitika Guardian, 26 August 1933, Page 5

RAIL COMPETITION

ATTITUDE OF DEPARTMENT MEETING OF APPEAL BOARD (Pe Prat Association — Copyright.) AUCKLAND, Aug. 2d. Comment on the attitude of the Railway Department to road services, was made by Mr L. Alderton, of the Transport Appeal Board, in dissenting from a majority decision of the Board.

Mr Alderton said the opposition of the Department to road services in southern suburban, and outer suburban Auckland areas, constitutes an endeavour t.o force co-ordination with the Railway. Operators were asked to accept the unprofitable portion of the journey, and the Department made n 0 serious attempt to show that the curtailed road service could be made payable. One of the greatest difficulties confronting the Appeal Board was the fact that the Railway Department apparently failed, or refused to admit tho' limitations of the railroad. Until it did admit them, it was impossible to obtain harmonious or effectual co-ordination between the essential road and rail services.

It was politic to consider how far the travelling public could lie coerced by decisions of the Appeal Board given in response to railway appeals. It might well result in the alienation of

public sympathy, which the Department, like all transport operators, could ill aford to lose. He believed that the attempted co-ordination would only cause much increased use of private cars,