Moves on Styx loop

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33386, 19 November 1973, Page 21

Moves on Styx loop

Credit for recent moves on the Styx railway loop belonged to Papanui petitioners, not to an arranged congratulatory session in Parliament, the member of Parliament for Papanui (Mr H. J. Walker) said.

He was commenting on a column, “The week in the House,” published in “The Press” last Monday, in which the debate on the railway loop was discussed. “The lack of discipline and constant noise from Government back-benchers when National Opposition members are speaking, and the resultant difficulty your Parliamentary reporter claims he [has in deciphering broadcasts, no doubt accounts for an error in reporting of the Styx loop discussions and its origin,” said Mr Walker. “The. Lyttelton marshalling yards were never discussed. “For a quarter of a century

the Styx loop has been under discussion,” he said. “The Christchurch City Council, the Waimairi and Paparua County Councils, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Regional Planning Authority have all made comment.” Rural areas had been concerned about the land held as railway reserve which was required for housing and other development; urban in- 1 dustry, which had been di-1 rected by former Govern-, ments to their present sites,! were concerned about retaining their railway sidings; but satisfactory agreement had been reached under the previous National Government, he said. Residents of the heavily built-up Papanui area were concerned about the increasing railway traffic and the un-

necessary and tragic loss of life and damage to property because of more frequent and heavier trains with the addition of each new Cook Strait ferry. “In 1971 an amended middle line was defined by proclamation, and final plans and the timing of the project are expected early in 1974,” Mr Walker said. “It is obvious the Middleton marshalling yards ijpust be extended, and, so ajs to prevent shunting delays, ! »the Styx loop must proceed with all expedition. “The residents of Papanui presented a successful petition to the House asking for work to proceed, immediately. The Labour Party’s timing of a question to its own Minister, obvious to the House if not to your reporter listening in, was done purposefully in an attempt to take credit from the Papanui petitioners,” said Mr Walker.

Our Parliamentary reporter comments that his report was not obtained from listening to a broadcast but from a “corrected” Hansard record supplied by the Minister of Railways (Mr McGuigan). Confusion between “Middleton” and “Lyttelton” obviously arose from a lack of local knowledge.