UNPROFITABLE RAILWAYS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume L, Issue 3953, 8 June 1929, Page 2

UNPROFITABLE RAILWAYS.

FEW will be inclined to quarrel with Sir Joseph Ward if he decides to close down branch lines which are not only failing to pay working expenses, but Which also place a burden on the public for interest on the capital cost of the line (says the Dominion). According to the 1928 returns there are approximately 30 railway sections in the Dominion which do not pay working expenses, much less interest on cost of construction. These railways entail a drain on the 'Consolidated Fund (that is, the taxpayers of all classes) of something like half a million annually; and even when this sulm is contributed it does not make the railways as a whole pay their way. Sir Joseph Ward apparently proposes to close down seven or eight of the more unprofitable sections, and in this way save the loss on working them, though there will still be the loss of interest on the cost of construction. Probably he is right in taking this course. But this fa'et should not be allowed to cloud the issue in regard to new construction. It is costing the country something like a million a year now to meet losses on our railways, and surely it is simple oolm'mlon sense, that no further railways should he built without the fullest investigation of the position as it is to-day and the prospects ahead. This is what Sir Joseph .Ward is being asked to do by Chambers of Commerce, Farmers’ Unions, and the Press before committing the country to millions of expenditure on more unprofitable railways.