Railways Revenue Rises In Most Sections

Press, Volume C, Issue 29582, 3 August 1961, Page 17

Railways Revenue Rises In Most Sections

Under practically all headings the New Zealand Railways Department’s revenue for the year ended March 31, 1961, showed an increase, says the annual report of the department. The total increase was £l-302,084, mainly from the heavier goods and parcels traffic, which produced £27,887.977. compared with £26,785,340 in the previous year. Passenger traffic produced (an increase of £28.617), and road service receipts, both passenger and freight, rose by £88.530 to £2.836.690.

Other subsidiary services earned an extra £40.540, to make £1,288,876; and miscellaneous non - operating revenue (rents, interest on investments. etc.) amounted to £684.294. an increase of £15.126. The report shows that railway goods traffic last year rose by 309,408 tons (or 4.7 per cent.) in the North Island to a record total of 6.901,384 tons. The corresponding revenue increased by £977.829. or 5.4 per cent. Ln the South Island, although goods traffic fell by 22,472 tons to 3,928,649 tons for the year, the goods revenue increased by £124,808, or 1.4 per cent A comparison of goods traffic figures shows that the biggest increases were in miscellaneous goods (from 2.857.000 to 3.091,000 tons), in artificial manures (from 922,000 to 1.023.000 tons), and in log (raffle (from 804,000 to 876.000 tons). The latter was

mainly on the MuruparaKawerau railway. where 799,300 tons of logs were carried last year. Other traffic that increased included cement, by 23.000 tons, and petrol and oil fuels, by 11,000 tons. Coal traffic declined from 1,810,000 to 1,755,000 tons, and the quantities of farm products sent by train nearly all tended to be a little lower than the previous year.