Railway Servants Transport Unification

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 752, 27 August 1929, Page 10

Railway Servants Transport Unification

COMPETITIVE WASTE WRITING-DOWN APPROVED Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. I The unification of the whole transport system of New Zealand is urged by the Thorndon branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, who claim that the present wasteful competition between road and railway involves a huge loss. The question of road versus railway transport was discussed at a meeting of the branch yesterday, and the following statement was adopted: Members of the Thorndon branch of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants heartily approve the pro- j posal of the Prime Minister to write off capital borrowed for railway construction from the railway accounts, and to make the interest on this capital a charge on the Consolidated Fund. At present the railways are expected to provide from their earnings interest on money borrowed for construction as well as to maintain rolling stock and permanent way. On the other hand road transport has only to keep the vehicle in order and to pay a small sum toward the construction and upkeep of the roadway, the greater part of this falling on the community, including the railwaymen. who are, therefore, in a manner of speaking, compelled to pay a subsidy to the transport system which is competing on unfair terms with the railways. ONE ORGANISATION “We desire also to impress upon the Prime Minister that our present transport methods are -wasteful and uneconomic, and that as long as transport is organised in competitive groups the best transport at lowest cost cannot be expected. The internal transport of any country is best and most economically handled by one organisation with complete control. The present wasteful competition system of small units must give way to unified control, and it is in the public interest that the rationalisation of our transport agencies should be undertaken before the drift becomes much more costly. “For these valid reasons we urge on the Prime Minister that without delay a national system of transport be inaugurated, and, as the Railway Department has the organisation and machinery the unified control of the transport system of this country should be vested in the New Zealand Railways.