FEARS DISCOUNTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 44, 21 February 1940, Page 11

FEARS DISCOUNTED.

MIDLAND RAILWAY LINE. ENGINEER'S REASSURANCE. (From Our Correspondent ) CHRISTCHURCH, Tuesday. Doubts expressed by railwaymen about the safety of that section of the Midland railway line on which an engine was derailed on November 23. causing the death of the driver, are discounted by Railway Department officials. Mr. P. H. Morey, district engineer to the Department at Christchurch, said that the Department had taken all possible steps to meet any danger on this section of the line. He was emphatic that railway servants, passengers and freight were not being exposed to any risk other than that normally associated with a railway service. "Of late that portion of the line near the scene of the derailment of an engine last November lias shown signs of weakness," said Mr. Morey. "The formation at this point is of the type known as 'cut and fill I ,' and after heavy weather this kind of formation is always liable to show such signs. The Department has decided to pull the present track, for a distance of 10 chains, nine feet in toward the hillside, and this measure should make the track absolutely secure. Cracks have shown at various points in the formation, but the track has already been moved trom these points, and no immediate danger is anticipated.''