Rail waggon demand exceeds capacity

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32460, 21 November 1970, Page 18

Rail waggon demand exceeds capacity

(New Zealand Press Association)

TIMARU, November 20. Last week 469 requests for railway waggons to send., freight from the South Island to the North Island were refused, and 132 waggons were refused for traffic in the other direction.

These figures were given in Timaru tonight by the Minister of Transport (Mr Gordon), at a public meeting when he was speaking on why a fourth interisland rail ferry had been order and what effect it would b»ve an present coastal shipping. Mr Gordon said that the Railways Department had been seriously embarrassed in not being' able to meet the demand for inter-island freight carried in railway waggons. In the last 25 working: weeks the railways had declined to accept 100.000, deadweight tons of traffic f-om the South Island alone.; The rate at which orders had' been declined had increased substantially recently and the refusals were now 2.5 times as great as they were at the beginning of the 25-week period. Mr Gordon said. In addition, .there was substantial potential traffic for w’hich no . waggon orders were placed because the firms concerned had been told that the traffic could not be handled. “We have two ferries, a third soon to start, and still we cannot accept all orders,”, said Mr Gordon.

I “This makes it very clear, to me that unless positive: action is now taken to ensure that there will be adequate ferry space in the future, the economic development of the country may be seriously retarded. COASTAL SHIPS "However, I am confident that the general economic growth will provide ample scope for other coastal shipping for the traffic for which it is best suited.” If the shipping industry felt that more roll-on services were practicable, then the opportunity existed, and had existed for some time, to institute such additional ser(vices. ’ “There has been no restriction on entry into coastal 'shipping but the shortage of shipping space has been I severe,” Mr Gordon said. ! Shipping owners said that ' the Railways Department had

.advantages over coastal shipaping because it did not pay taxes, but this was not correct. The department did not pay taxes on its net profit but it did have to meet the payroll tax and it did have to meet substantial hidden costs incurred in the provision of socially necessary but uneconomic services. ESTIMATE MADE Mr Gordon said the Railways Department had made a close study of ' potential traffic and this made it clear tonnage of the order of 4m tons by the year ending March 31, 1975, was not unreasonable as' an estimate of demand for deadweight tonnage between the North and South Islands. “As the four rail femes will cater for only 1.2 m tons of this estimated total interisland traffic, it is evident that there will be considerable tonnage, available for coastal vessels provided they can provide, an efficient and economic service,” he said. “All the information available indicates that to defer the ordering of a fourth Cook Strait ferry could have serious economic repercussions on the economic growth of; the country, and that it would; be quite wrong to permit the Railways Department to continue to be embarrassed by not being able to meet the demands of its customers for transport," Mr Gordon said.