BUS SERVICE TO DUNEDIN

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26847, 27 September 1952, Page 8

BUS SERVICE TO DUNEDIN

MIDLAND MOTORWAYS APPEAL

AUTHORITY RESERVES DECISION

Counsel for the Railways Department, Mr L. F. Tiller, told the 'transport Licensing Appeal Authority (Judge Archer) yesterday that the department would be prepared to operate a service between Christchurch and Dunedin in the afternoon or in the evening. He made this statement when Judge Archer was hearing an appeal by Midland Motorways Services. Ltd, against the refusal of No. 10 Transport Licensing Authority on July 8 to grant its application to operate a night pas* senger bus service in both directions between Christchurch and Dunedin. The Authority reserved his decision. Mr R. A. Young, who represented the appellant company, charged the department with a change of face since the hearing of the application by the No. 10 Transport Licensing Authority, He said that the whole tenor of the department’s case in Dunedin that the service was unnecessary and the evidence of a departmental expert had been that there would not be a demand for it. To Judge Archer, who ashed him why. if there was no demand for evening services, so many had been started in the North Island. Mr Tiller said that there must be a demand. What had surprised him was that when the department conducted an investigation as recently as 1949 it had not been put up as a proposition. It had therefore come as a surprise, at the hearing of the case by the Licensing Authority, that so many responsible bodies supported the application. Mr Tiller claimed that the department’s past attitude had been justifiable. in that if there had been a spontaneous demand for a service it would have given it very serious consideration. Questioning Mr Tiller Judge Archer said it seemed to be the habitual type of defence of the department when opposing a private application of this nature that the operator would “go broke’* or the department could operate the service itself. In the few eases where private operators had had a go at it th**y had made a job of it, and the forebodings of the Railways Department had been unwarranted. Inter-connecting Value Opening the appeal Mr Young said he wished to emphasise the interconnecting value of the proposed service with other road and rail services arriving in Christchurch and Dunedin in the late afternoon, that the timetable for the service was so far away from that of the Railways Department that it would not take passengers away from the railways, and that it would give the South Island an evening transport service comparable with the evening services north of Christchurch. The proposed service, said Mr Young, would leave Dunedin and Christchurch daily, except Sunday, at 6 p.m., arriving at the other city at 1.30 a.m. . After describing existing rail, road and air services between Dunedin and Christchurch. Mr Young said the route suffered badly in comparison with, similar routes in the North Island. Over the last 10 years there had been no approach to the department for such a service, said Mr Tiller, and the department was concerned that there should be any suggestion that it was'procrastinating. With a view to improving and streamlining schedules a complete overhaul of existing schedules between Christchurch and Dunedin was now being undertaken by the department, said Mr Tiller. Before any changes were made local authorities would be consulted, and if the need for such a service was found the department could provide it. In the past, he said, the department had experienced a demand for an

afternoon rather than a late evening service—in fact there had been no demand for late evening services at all Judse Archer: Would you say the rompanv is mistaken in its ideas about the service and that it will lose money? Mr Tiller: I would say that there would be a demand for any service. In reply, Mr Young said that for the last 13 years the department had in a way controlled the road rights over the route, but never at any time had it apnlied to ooerate an evening or week-day service between Christchurch and Dunedin. That -day there had been a change of front on the part nf the department. The suggestion of the department operating an afternoon service to him appeared belated. There was no suggestion that Mr Tiller had an instruction from the General Manager of Railways to offer an afternoon service, let alone an evening service. Mr Young said that the department had no prior right to operate such a service. The Minister was not licensed over the route, and the department had not even filed an application. If rail-cars were eventually allotted to the Christchurch-Dunedin route they could be brought into service without anv licence being needed Onlv that day Mr Tiller had acknowledged the weight of the appellant’s r*ase and a demand for a service.