Railways Handling Of Containers Opposed

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31982, 8 May 1969, Page 16

Railways Handling Of Containers Opposed

The council of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce does not agree that the Railways Department should handle the internal transport of containers in New Zealand.

The council last evening supported the view of its transport committee that this would mean a deficiency of coastal shipping, and a drastic loss of revenue for the Lyttelton Harbour Board and the Christchurch-Lyttelton Road Tunnel Authority. The transport committee’s chairman (Mr A. G. Williams) said that the Metra report on shipping and transport in New Zealand appeared to suggest that the Railways Department should handle containers internally. He questioned the advisability of relying on one form of internal transport “We are not questioning their efficiency but reliance on one system with a single main track which could be disrupted through storm,

floods or slips, leaving us with no alternative means of transport,” he said. The tunnel authority might lose 80 per cent of its traffic if the Railways Department handled all container ship-

ping. Mr Williams said his committee would discuss the Metra report with the Lyttelton Harbour Board, the Canterbury Manufacturers' Association and North Canterbury Federated Farmers. The report had mentioned Whangarei, Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton, Bluff, Dunedin and New Plymouth and Napier as possible container ports. “Other ports were not mentioned, which means that Timaru was not even considered,” he said.