Keeping Abreast

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 457, 12 September 1928, Page 8

Keeping Abreast

Railways Must Improve —Or Drift

(From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, To-day. IN addition to meeting outside competition, by the provision of greater facilities, the New Zealand Railways, in the execution of its ten-year programme of improvements, is called upon to gratify a more fastidious taste of a wellserved public. The Prime Minister, in the Railway Statement presented to the House of Representatives yesterday, •reviewing the works in contemplation. %ays the railways must rise to the occasion or allow their business to drift into other channels. Electrification at all important termini is included in proposed works.

A COMPREHENSIVE programme of essential works in railways improvement was advanced by Mr. E. H. Hiley, who was general manager in 1914. This schedule was held up during the years of the war, however, and the Minister for Railways, the Right Hon. J. G. Coates, revived it in 1924, and earmarked eight millions sterling to be expended over 10 years. At that time the Minister emphasised the urgency of the work on account of the increasing business of the railways, the revenue having increased by £3,000,000, the passengers by 5,000,000, and the goods traf-

fic by 1,000,000 in the decade. The 1924 report, upon which present development is based, was drawn up in conjunction with the Government’s general policy on land development, hydro-electricity, telegraphs and telephones, wireless, irrigation, and highways, so that the full resources of the Dominion could be utilised by the more extensive use of the railways. So rapidly have conditions changed during the past few years, however, that the department is now faced with the necessity of having to alter the fabric of its programme, and reconstruct the basis of its development, while expanding business in certain directions ' requires added facilities. The education of the public to expect a higher standard of service, consequent upon luxury and comfort in other departments of travel, has played a substantial part in the Railway Department’s determination to keep pace with the times. “In regard to the future of tourists and special services,’* the Minister

said in his report, “we expect an increase in this class of business, and efforts are being made to provide accommodation sufficiently satisfactory to attract and hold our customers. “The whole scheme was entirely based on economic grounds, and looked upon as a necessary investment. It is now apparent that developments in new directions, for which no provision was made in the original programme, have become essential, the most important being electrification at the most important termini, a subject which is now under consideration. “Particularly in connection with station improvements, the recognition can no longer be. postponed of the fact that the standard of the public demand in matters of transport has been considerably raised within recent times, and what in the past was accepted with a reasonable measure of satisfaction by the public is now utterly rejected, and made the subject of criticism that has a direct reflex in a tendency to transfer the business to other forms of transport. “With the introduction of new methods of transport, particularly in connection with motors, together with the high development of luxury associated with marine transport, to the extent that we now have what are often referred to as “floating palaces” conveying people between various parts of the world, the psychological atmosphere of the transport industry has undergone a rapid and almost startling change. "The railways, if they are to maintain their place In the community, have to face this fact, and the question inevitably arises as to whether the railway transport organisations are willing to rise to the occasion and meet the altered conditions, or whether they prefer to drift and allow their business to be diverted into other channels.” Chief among the railway works — apart from the construction of new lines, and new railway stations at Auckland and Wellington—is the reorganisation of the workshops, which is estimated to occupy three years of actual working. The plan, in gene ral, provides that all major repairs of locomotives will be done in one shop in each island, so that the maximum benefit of specialisation and special machinery can be taken advantage of. Thus the Hutt workshops, in the North Island, and Hillside workshops, in the South Island, will be locomotive repair and building shops, while Otahuhu and Addington, in the North and South Islands respectively, will be the car and wagon repair and new building workshops. This policy, which already has been outlined, will permit of the Imports tion of only raw materials in the future, instead of finished articles, and will assist {lie labour situation of the Dominion ,by providing work in New Zealand rather than elsewhere. With out the reorganisation of the workshops as planned by the department, this would not have been possible.