INCREASED RAILWAY REVENUE

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20737, 22 February 1939, Page 6

INCREASED RAILWAY REVENUE

Record revenue for the month ended on February 4 is expected to be shown by the New Zealand railways when the final figures are available. To some extent the increase in revenue is due to the advance in fares and freights, but statistics show that the railways have been receiving increasing patronage, largely because private competitive services have been swept away and because of the period of national prosperity. The position would be more healthy were the increase in revenue due to the merit of the service in open competition, but there is at least some comfort in the reflection that there is increasing income to support the £70,000,000 invested in the railways.

The service has still some distance to go before revenue is sufficient to meet interest as well as maintenance charges, but the railways’ budgetary position is more hopeful in view of the fact that exceptionally adverse weather and a substantial decrease in production have been experienced this season. Another factor has been a decrease of 1,000,000 in the number of sheep transported. Next year there may be an improvement in at least some of these phases of railway experience, and with a full year’s operation of the increased tariff it may be possible to see whether the decline in the railways’ financial position can be arrested. It must be remembered, however, that the service is being developed under a rigid system of protection, and whether the railways can be considered strictly “economic” under such conditions is another matter. The protection afforded is to some extent holding back advancement by other forms of transport, and it is for the railways administration to consider whether it is wise to go on adding heavily to the amount of money invested in the system by the construction of new lines when it is obvious that those lines will not even pay their way without continued protection.