Congress Hears Paper On Transport Policy

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31588, 27 January 1968, Page 14

Congress Hears Paper On Transport Policy

Port development was one sphere of transport in which the unwillingness or inability of successive governments to formulate a port development policy had cost New Zealand dear, said Dr A. E. McQueen, of Victoria University of Wellington, in a paper on transport in the 1960 s delivered to the congress of the Australia and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science yesterday. “Then there is the slowly disappearing railways defence mechanism, which still occas- 1 tonally surfaces at transport licensing hearings. There was a great opportunity lost in 1966 to lay the foundations for a national shipping line with the operation of a Gov-ernment-owned Tasman ferry, service. “There are these frequent announcements by the Minister of Transport (Mr Gordon) that road transport can feed more economically than branch lines to main rail routes for up to 100 miles,” he said. “What is so magic about the figure of 100, anyway will it apply equally on good South Island roads and the lower-grade roads of Northland?

“Perhaps this is one man's way of setting out future pol-

icy sound the depths first and see what can be fished up.” There would be a greater eventual concentration of railway services, both in terms of routes served and the number of stations worked, Dr McQueen said. “Changes in handling may well see the conventional highsider and box waggon obsolete by 2000; railway rolling stock will consist largely of flat-top waggons on to which containers of various types will be loaded in centralised loading stations, plus specialist waggons for certain bulk commodities." Marshalling yards would exist as much for containers as for waggons, he said. This was of considerable significance in town planning, as the application of such a concept could well save a lot of space now taken by large railway marshalling yards in most urban areas. Dr McQueen said there was little need for a Beeching in New Zealand. “The process of rural branch-line abandonment and main-line station closure has been continuing fitfully for several decades, more than 300 stations having been closed between 1931 and January 1, 1968.”