Mr McAlpine Puts Nelson Railway Cost At £16m-£18m

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29237, 22 June 1960, Page 9

Mr McAlpine Puts Nelson Railway Cost At £16m-£18m

■ <N * W Press Association)

B ' ' WELLINGTON, June 21. Nelson railway could not hit ttiilt for £lom or anything ■& Jt, Mr J. K. McAlpine, M.R, S at a National Party lunflpM in Wellington today. He Jgtsated that the cost would be '£jntr El6m or £lBm. Mr Me* Mine was Minister of Railways -S'tbe National Government “ge said that when the Governreleased a detailed account St the facts about the railway gt National Party would decide it would continue with 'S bui lding of the railway, if it aSne into office later in the year. 'While the details about it were ’fr their present incomplete state g. would not be possible to give '.■sb exact assessment of the cost M the railway or its earning 'Spacity, but he was confident he could come close to it, said Mr T/ Three Questions 4He considered three things should be looked at before a Milway was built The first was .the effect on development that Ge railway would have at the tine it* was built Could this ■rsilway develop the district more efficiently than a road would develop it under modern conditions? Be thought the answer was in Be negative. /Second, could It give a better Wrice than modern, unrestricted Mad services? Again he thought the answer was “no.” /Finally, he thought it was pert- *** in some cases to ask whether the railway built today, With modern construction, and mention costs, would make a jtoflt Again the answer must ,be in the negative. However, he would not ask this last question if an affirmative reply was received to the first two. Mr McAlpine said that the operStog loos for the South Island railways last year, had been £l.Bm. This loss would be greater after the new railway was built.

e ZJSd?**** r *^ B atone would cost £M,OOO a mile, and the coot" 3 * "“te wa* £2500. The J 1 * eartbworiw would be *“?“• becau * noone m «w the route the raUww was Wy tota. but uZSI’S toe number of J“to*"to4jr "ssji* * w< "“ He had no <detaUs of buttdingß up, i2'£. he suaSSISS m ** About every 10 ndlea. s*e aingleet fonn of signalling :ost £16.000 a mile. *£‘ uti<>n te normal mainteninee, there wae atoo a maintenwwe charge of £l2 10e a week a mile of line for at least three

Mr McAlpine said that Mr Skinner had stated that 155,000 tons of exotic forest timber would be going over the line. He wondered, he said, whether Mr Skinner total amount milled in the South Island last year was 50,000 tons, and the market in the. South Island was already saturated. He added that he had left several charges out of his estimate because he was ignorant of the facts.

Giving details erf his estimated coot of £lBm to £lBm, he said that the Prime Minister (Mr Nash) had said there would be dx miles and a half erf tunnel in the new railway. Ten years ago the Rimutaka tunnel had cost £710,000 a mile. Be thought that a 30 per cent Increase was a fair assessment, K £6)m would be spent to put the tunnels on the job. A modem railway had 2500 drapers a mile, and the coat of Australian hardwood sleepers was £3 each. That meant there would £75,000 a mile for,