‘Railway’ Cost Increases

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32335, 29 June 1970, Page 22

‘Railway’ Cost Increases

(From Out Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, June 28. Nelson’s so-called “notional railway” will cost the New Zealand taxpayer more than ever before in the present year.

The sum of $560,000 is provided for in this year’s estimates, to be paid out in subsidies connected with the notional railway, which is a road subsidy scheme intended to compensate the Nelson area for not having a railway. Last year $425,000 was voted for this purpose, but the actual amount paid out was $517,554. This has repeated the pattern of past years, and is an indication of the increasing commercial prosperity of the area covered by the notional railway —where goods and persons travel by road transport and pay rail prices. The notional railway has been in operation since November, 1957, when it was introduced after a Government

decision had been made not to proceed with the construction of a railway line connecting Nelson with the South Island main trunk. When the notional railway idea was introduced, just before the 1957 general election, the cost of the scheme was seriously underestimated. It was then stated officially

that the yearly cost would be $150,000, including $134,000 for goods subsidies. However, the annual cost has never been less than $200,000, and it is now almost three times that figure. Since its inception the scheme has resulted in pay-outs totalling about s4m. and the annual figure appears now to be well above $500,000. The Government has always maintained that the loss on a real railway would have been greater. In 1964, when the total “notional” payout was approaching $1,500,000, the then Minister of Railways (Mr McAlpine) said the annual loss on a real railway would have reached $1,180,000 by 1967. Since then the figures relating to the notional railway have been removed from the railways estimates. They now appear under subdivision IV (miscellaneous services) of the estimates of the Department of Internal Affairs. The entry is listed with pay. ments to the Returned Services Association, the National War Memorial, and the Auckland War Memorial Museum However, most members of Parliament are unclear as to what the notional railway is a memorial of.