THE RAILWAYS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19970, 3 July 1930, Page 9

THE RAILWAYS.

* REDUCING costs. SERVICES CURTAILED. SOUTH ISLAND HARDEST HIT. [THE PRESS Special Service.] WELLINGTON, July 2. Drastic "cuts" in the railway services of the Dominion, and particularly affecting the South Island, were announced by the Minister for Railways (the Hon. W. A. Veitch) to-day. It is hoped considerably to curtail expenditure while at the same time maintaining a reasonably adequate service. The alterations will come into effect on July 13th. "In view of the present financial position and the pressing need for economy, Cabinet has had under consideration the question of an adjustment of the railway time-tables throughout the Dominion, including branch lineß, with a viow to achieving a definite curtailment in expenditure while at the Bame time providing a railway service reasonably adequate to the public requirements," said Mr Veitch. After a very careful examination of the whole of the train services, the following curtailments ha've already been decided upon. North Island.

The daylight limited expresses between Auckland and Wellington will be discontinued.

The present Auckland-Opua daily express trains will run daily between Auckland and Whangarei, but between Whangarei and Opua they will run thrice weekly only. The through days, Auckland to Opua, will be Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and the through days Opua to Auckland will be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The present Auckland-Taneatua daily express trains will run daily between Auckland and Tauranga, but between Tauranga and Taneatua these trains will run thrice weekly only. The through days from Auckland to Taneatua will be Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and the through days from Taneatua to Auckland will be Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The present night expresses between Wellington and New Plymouth will be discontinued. South Island. In the South Island the following adjustments to the mail and express trains have been decided upon:— The through expresses between Christchurch and Invercargill will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays each way. The mail trains between Christchurch and Dunedin will run on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Provision will be made (as formerly) for the Monday train from Christchurch to run on an earlier schedule than on the other two days. The mail trains between Dunedin and Invercargill will run on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays each way, with an additional mail train from Dunedin to Invercargill on Saturdays. The present night expresses between Christchurch and Invercargill will be rearranged to leave Christchurch on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, and run to Dunedin only, and in the re* verse direction will start from Invercargill on only one day of the week, namely, on Sunday, and will run from Dunedin to Christchurch on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The Gore-Kingston express train will run on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Under the altered arrangement of mail and express trains in the South Island, although the night express from Christchurch will run to Dunedin only, passengers will still be able to make the through connexion to Invercargill by the morning mail train from Dunedin arriving at Invercargill only two hours later than under the present time-table. Similarly in the reverse direction passengers leaving Invercargill by the mail train ..on Wednesdays and Fridays will connect at Dunedin with the night train for Christchurch, arriving at Christchurch on the following morning. The alteration in the time-table for the night expresses will permit of a much improved connexion between the West Coast and the southern districts. Further economies proposed in con. nexion with train operations in the various districts of the South Island include the following:— Christchurch-Parnassus Area The present morning and' evening Wednes-. day trains between Parnassus and Waipara will be discontinued. Christchurch-Culverden-Waiau Area— The present morning and evening Wednesday trains between Waiau and Culverden will bo discontinued. The present daily 6.34 a.m. Culverden-Christchurch train and the return 4.25 p.m. Christ-church-Culverden train will run between Waikari and Christchurch only, with the exception that on Wednesdays they will commence and terminate at Hawarden. The afternoon train from Culverden will be adjusted to con* nect at Waipara with the fast Par-nassus-Christchurch train with a slight adjustment to the latter. Southbridge Branch —The present 8.40 a.m. Christchurch-Southbridge, and the 4,15 p.m. Southbridge-Christchurch train on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays will be discontinued. Kurow Branch —The present passenger train between Kurow and Oamaru will be replaced by a mixed train which will convey both passengers and goods traffic. Oamaru-Palmerston-Dunedin—The recently inaugurated passenger trains have been poorly patronised. They will revert to mixed trains running on the time-table in operation prior to February last, thus permitting substantial savings in running costs. Otago Central Line—The present fast passenger train running on three days per week between Dunedin and Cromwell will be discontinued, and the winter service of fast mixed trains will be substituted. The present daily mixed trains will be curtailed to three days per week. Roxburgh Line —The present Thursday train between Roxburgh and Milton will be discontinued. Linos to, be Closed. Additional to the proposals outlined herein the following branch lines, which are showing heavy operating losses and very small returns in revenue, will be closed: — The Cape Foulwind line on the' West, port section. The Oxford West-Sheffield line. The Eyreton branch extending from Eyreton Junction to Bennetts. The portion of the Springburn branch between Mount Somers and Springburn. The portion of the Kurow branch between Kurow and Hakataramea, The Tokarahl branch from Windsor to Tokarahi,

The portion of the Tapanui branch between Heriot and E die vale. The portion of the Glenham branch between Wyndham and Glenham. The Mossburn branch. The portion of the Tuatapere line between Tuatapere and Orswia. "I may add," continued Mr Veitch, "that my review of the whole of th« branch lines of the Dominion is not yet quite complete, bnt my investigations so far as they have proceeded indicate that it irill probably be necessary to close the Whole or some portion of one or more branches additional to those enumerated above or to make substantial alterations in the services. I will make a further announcement regarding these lines as soon as my investigations ate completed. Sunday Submbaa Services. "With regard to Sunday suburban services throughout the Dominion these, generally speaking, are showing a loss on operation, and as an alternative to withdrawing theso trains I have decided to make concession tickets of ail kinds not available on them so that all passengers travelling by the suburban services on Sunday will require to pay their fares at the ordinary rates. This principle is not altogether new as regards Sunday transport services, as most tram systems put a greater or a losser amount of restriction on the nse of concession tickets on Sundays. lam loath to withdraw the Sunday suburban services, but in view of the very pressing need for the most; rigid economy something had to be done either along that line or along the line of endeavouring to make the services a better financial proposition. I have adopted the expedient which will cause the least inconvenience to the travelling public, and I hope to retain their patronage at a very slight increase of cost to them.

"In conclusion, I would like to say that it is always' a matter of regret to havo to withdraw services, but clearly the limits to the capacity of any business are definitely set by tho finance available, and in view of the urgency of the need for cutting the loss I have bad regretfully to conclude that the Department is not in the position to carry them on. As regards closing lines, this has been decided upon only In cases where the amount of service given was relatively small and the cost of giving the service was much greater than the country eonld be reasonably expected to pay. Due consideration has also been given to the question of an alternative route by road. It is proposed to bring the alterations into operation as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made, and Hfost of them will operate from July 13th. It is, of course, necessary that there should be the least possible delay in bringing the adjustments into force so that we may get the greatest measure of economy during the current year. Iq order to effect urgent economies during the winter months, while traffic is at its lowest, it has been found necessary to give effeet at once to these changes and the suspension of certain time-table trains. They will be reviewed in the light of any recommendations made by the Royal Commission."In case it may be thought that the reduced service may not be- adequate to meet the requirements of available business, the train mileages quoted below will prove that during the last few years they have grown far ahead of the business secured, and indicate quite clearly one of the causes of losses ia the working railways account. Passenger BeveTrain nue including Mileage. Season Tickets. . & . 1924-95 .. 9,088,628 2,288.5711 1929-30 ... 13,082,043 1,995.927 Ins. .. 2,938,420 Dec. £292.644, "The above figures also prove that a great effort has been made by the administration to retain the passenger business, but in spite of that effort tb« traffic is being secured by road services. It is, therefore, inadvisable to contino? Incurring these heavy lorses in an endeavour to recover passenger business.'*

Cutting Losses. The need for economy was gives by the Minister this evening, as the rea«on for cratailing railway services .before the report of tho Royal Commission had been received. "By putting these alterations inte effect now we will be able to cut the losses during the next nine months of the financial year," Mr, Veltch said, "otherwise we would have had to wait until the Commission reported in September, and it would take a month or so longer to put its recommendations into effect. Thus these losses Tfoidd probably continue for another four months." , • Asked whether the cancellation o" South Island branch services, meant the scrapping of lines or merely ceasing train services, the Minister said, that in a few instances the lines would he entirely abandoned, and the tracks would be taken up. A number of the lines crossed bridges which needed repairs urgently, and rather than rink more eapital in such unprofitable, lines the services would be done away within other instances, if passenger services were to be continued expenditure would be needed to improve the tracks, owing to the speed at which passenger trains travelled. Where it would not be profitable to Improve such lines, goods ser-. vices woulcf be continued in a number of instances in view of the fact that capital was already irretrievably sunfe in these lines. There were other cases where the losses were so great that it had been decided to abandon ootfc goods and passenger services. The Minister added that the cutsinnonnced were only an instalment, from time to time during the next few weeks he hoped to be aTHe to make decisions upon other lines in both Islands.

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