RAILWAY COSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 215, 11 September 1931, Page 9

RAILWAY COSTS.

REJECTED LINES.

WOULD COST £6,000,000.

POOR REVENUE PROSPECTS

ROADS ALREADY PROVIDED.

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Illuminating statistics are given by the Railway Board, in its first report to Parliament/ as to the cost of completing the six lines of railway the construction of which it considers is not justified. The details are: — Wharauui-Parnaesus (5.1. M.T.): Completion cost, £2.242,201,- construction cost per mile, £36.276. Xapier-Gisborne, £1,320,0(53; £37,049 per mile. Kawatiri-Inangahua, £1,597,000; £35,004 per mile. . . Westport-lnangahua, £450,000; £37,577 per mile.; ... Waiotira-Dargayille, £40,000; £49..327 per mile. ■ ' Okaihau-Rangiahua, £60,000; £51,099 per mile. The completion figures do not include provision for rolling stock, signalling appliances or telegraph and telephone facilities, the cost of which would bring the total amount to substantially move than £0,000,000. The report adds that con<=tru.:tiou costs generally in recent years have been found by the board to range from an average" of £30,000 per mile up to £76,000 a mile and even higher, and the net annual revenue per mile required to make the financial position secure would be £1500. On North Island lines, alter excluding the non-paying branwi lines, the net revenue is only £572 a year, while in the case of the South Island main system the figure is £294. It is stated that in almost every case where railways are proposed, to be constructed in New Zealand roads have already been provided, and it would cost much less money to improve the roads to a satisfactory standard and to provide motor transport that would be reasonably adequate to the needs of the district than to construct and work a railwav. Practically all the timber and coal requirements. of the Dominion can be met from sources of supply that are already well provided with transport facilities, and, generally speaking, the products of the country are provided with reasonable access to suitable markets. The board believes that most of the existin* railways will continue to be an essential part of the transport system of the Dominion for many years to come, but it does, not hold that the taxpayer should have the burden, of taxation increased through the construction of unprofitable lines because of the policy adopted in the past. [The reception of the report by the House of -Representatives . fe, described on another page J. .