AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 June 1922, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN RAILWAYS.

SAKES AND FREIGHTS. LITTLE HOPE OF REDUCTION. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received June 10, 5.5 p.m. Sydney, June 10. Official figures in the possession of the railway commissioners give no hope of any all-round decrease in fares or freights. The only hope is that the Government \vili take up the loss on developmental lines, In which case an all-round reduction of 3 0 per cent, would be possible. Since 1914 the fares and freights have increased 55 per cent. The general expectation has been that the fall in the basic wage and the abolition of the 44-hour week would result in decreased fares and freights, but these influences are almost neutralised by the substantial increase in the interest bill on the eighty-two millions of capital cost of the railways. If the last award of the Board of Trade becomes operative, there will be a reduction of £550,000 annually, but the effect of the high interest loans raised during and since the war will greatly increase the interest bill, which it is estimated will jump up £400,000, and which will reduce the margin of saving on the basic wage reduction to £150,000.