Railways corporation favoured

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33779, 27 February 1975, Page 14

Railways corporation favoured

ew Zealand Press Association

WELLINGTON. February 26

The New Zealand Road Transport Association is in favour of the Railways Department being administered under a corporation structure, according to its submissions today to the Government committee on transport co-ordination.

“We expect decisions would be made from a commercially motivated base and

the Government would be in a position to exercise oversight of the operation without being directly involved in commercial activity,” the association said. “The private sector would be able to obtain fair competition in a commercial climate which is not clouded by the political issues of the time which often unjustly suggest political interference with normal profit-motivated business activities.

"While supporting the idea of corporation control, the Road Transport Association is opposed to any expantion of the railway function into direct and open compe-

tition with the private road-} transport industry. “In the view of this* association, such a develop-! ment offers no advantage to.' users or to the economy.”

The association submitted, that the Railways corpora-; tion should divest itself of! road-freighting services. It} also submitted that there* would be no additional bene-J fit from the establishment ofr a State-owned freightforwarding corporation. 1

“We wish to reiterate our( view that public corporations in the main should bei restricted to areas of monopoly such as the infra-* structure and transfer needsand where a servicing mono-} poly existed such as the rail-’ line haul. This is essential order to avoid underminirv(the confidence of the privat# sector.”