THE MAIN TRUNK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 2648, 20 October 1923, Page 3

THE MAIN TRUNK.

CAN THE TRIP BE SHORTENED ? LINKING UP BETWEEN MARTON AND LEVIN. THE CASE FOR. THE PUBLIC. Recent statements by the Minister,Valul also by the cGnernl Manater, and. also bv.the General ManaMain Trunk .'railway between Wellington and Anckland are a matter of interest.and eoneern .to the tijavelling public, of the'Dominipn, which makes so much use of this lino writes “A Traveller” in the “Wellington Post” and reproduced in the Auckland “Star.” The Minister speaks of a considerable ’ section of the community who are strongly in favour of night travelling,” but admits that “night running is much more expensive to the Department than day running.” _ The question arises as to what proportion of the travelling public prefers to do the journey by night to doing it by day. So far as the general public is concerned, one feels sure that the Minster is mistaken. Nobody who has ever gone through the eighteen-hour trip be-’ tween tlie two chief centres of the. North Island would ever willingly go through-it. again. It would be a different matter if the journey could be accomplished in daylight, or if, as on long distance trains in other countries, the day carriages were convertible into sleeperSo With the line as it is a daylightservice between Wellington and Auckland is quite out of the question. It is not that the distance is excessive—a similar .distance in Britain between London and Edinburgh is covered in about eight hours —it is simply tbat the too difficult in its central and oxtreme southern portion for expresses to run at high speeds. If the distances could In*shortened materially. a lid the worst grades and curves superseded, as is actually proposed by the authorities in regard to the section between Wellington and Paekaknriki, a daylight run of from 12 to 14 hours would he quite within the limits of reasonable possibility, LEVIN-MARTON DEVIATION. A most important proposal to 'shorten the line is ’the Levin-Mar-ton deviation through Boston., It would involve the construction of about 40 miles of line, practically all on the level with no grade exceeding 1 in 100, and no engineering difficulties except the building of bridges over the Mannwatu and the Rangitikei rivers. It would shorten the distance from LevirfTo Marton by about 17 miles as compared with the present circuitous route by Pal-

merston North, Feilding and Hal- - “'combe, with its heavy grades between'Feilding and Grentford. The cost has been estimated by the Railway Department as about- £500,000, including altera I ions to Existing stations, etc. At Foxton recently the question was raised again before the Minister and Genertfl Manager of Railways, and Mr MeVilly is reported as saying that the whole question of the line had been exhaustively gone into, and it had been found to be economically unsound from the standpoint of the Department. It would not pay the Department to construct a line which would not recover in increased revenue the cost of construction. DEPARTMENTAL VIEW. This statement of Mr McVflly’s r - is no doubt intended to shelve the Levin-Marton deviation scheme, at any rate for our time, as the final dictum of the expert overruling the plain layman. Mr MeVilly gave no -reasons at Foxton, jmt when one comes to look up his evidence before the 1916 Commission against the proposal, it is by no means convincing. The great point he made then was that the. 17 miles saved in distance would be 17 miles less for the Department to charge for in ' issuing tickets, and 17 miles less for freight and stock charge^., He estimated a total loss of £70,000 a year. Now that seems a very childish argument. In the course of his evidence before the 1916 Commission the General admitted that the Le-vin-MaTtom proposal was a Dominion matter, not a matter of purely local,concern. It is also a matter of public as well as of departmental interest. The public, when travel- : ling, is coijperned with getting to jts destinationJrn the most comfortable manner and the quickest time possible. A- PATCHWORK SYSTEM. 7 iv The New Zealand railway system has grown up largely on the principle of serving new settlements or of opening up country for settlement. That is what makes the Main Trunk such a patchwork system, especially the southern half of it. A main line of railway should follow the geometrical principle of the shortest distance between two points compatible yyith the flattest grades. From Auckland south to about Horopito,- the_Main Trunk generally follows the direction of a straight line between Wellington and Auckland. Then there is the huge bend eastward round by Taihape, joining up with the straight line again at Marton, only to swing eastward once more round to Palmerston N., and to strike a straight line again at about Levin. The proposed LevinMarton deviation follows the' straight line, and cuts out its 17 miles. If the Taihape bend rould be simi- * larly cut out by a lineup the Wangaehu and its tributary valleys to somewhere near Ohakune, the distance to Auckland could be shortened again by another 20 miles or SO.® - If suc h deviations were carried out, and the line between Welling-

ton and Paekakarifei improved, as planned, it would be easily possible to run a. daylight service, between Wellington and Anekland. Apart from that the need tot? a better line between south of Levin and Marton, and Wanganui northward is shown by the eminently successful competition of the road with the rail in this district. There is a frequent, service of motors between both Palmerston and Wanganui and Marton and Wanganui. The Minister of Railways, who is also Minister of Public Works, suggested at Foxton the abandonment of the FoxtonPalmerston North railway-and the substitution of a good road. If tlii&,is the way the Railway Depart,'meat is going to meet the competition of the road, it mght as well give lip the ghost- at once. The better way is to meet such competition by a better service in the same district, “and this the Levin-Marton deviation would furnish. Once That svas carried. out, little more would be heard of motor coifipetition in' that locality. From the point of view of the public interest the case for the deviation is unanswerable.