RAILWAY PROBLEMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 110, 10 May 1923, Page 4

RAILWAY PROBLEMS.

A Wellington deputation that waited on the Minister of Public Works on Tuesday elicited one or two statements that redirected attention to the formidable tasks of improvement that await the Railway Department. The question of the deviation of the line from Wellington to the Wairarapa, so as to cut out the slow end costly journey over the Rimutaka incline, with its special haulage, has been pressed on tlie Government of late, and Mr. Massey stated last year that the first sod would be turned in 1923, which perhaps was a rash promise. Several routes have been suggested, and Mr. Massey gave the cost of ene of them as a million. Now Mr. Coates says "it is pretty obvious" that the 'best way will be to tunnel through the Rimutakas instead of going over them. With the history of the Otira tunnel in our mind, we await with interest details of this scheme. The deviation of the main line from Wellington northwards is also before the Department. Years ago Mr. Hiley, then General Manager of Railways, reported that the capacity of the 27 miles of line between Wellington and Paekakariki was already very heavily taxed, and that "a means must be found at an early date to relieve the position." It was stated in Tuesdays-discussion that the Department had not made up its mind what to do, but the possibility of more tunnelling was mentioned. All this hae an intimate connection with the question of railway finance. This recommendation of Mr. Hiley'e about the line running out of Wellington was only one of toany that lie made for transport improvement, but only a fraction of his big programme of 1914, which did not •over all the improvements he had in mind, has been carried out—and this is 1923. Year after year the Department stresses the need foe proceeding energetically with this programme, but the Government drifts on. A very large expenditure on new stations and terminal facilities, to say nothing of such works as the Auckland and Rimutaka deviations, lies ahead, but the Government seems to be afraid to tackle the problem. Be it noted that the finance of the railway system has been unsatisfactory in spite of the postponement of this expenditure. Great additions will have to be made- some day to-capital cost. Some of these will be immediately productive; the results of others will not show for some time; others, aeain, cannot be classed as productive. Theee considerations reinforce the argument for businesslike management of the service, and for the exercise of the utmost prudence in laying down new lines.