Railways giving up stock

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34129, 15 April 1976, Page 2

Railways giving up stock

The transport of livestock by rail is expected to end next year. Once the railways carried most of the country’s livestock traffic, but the business has now dwindled to a mere shadow of its former self. The small number of remaining livestock waggons on New Zealand Railways would not be replaced when they fell due for retirement, the Minister of Railways (Mr McLachlan) said yesterday, reports the Parliamentary reporter of “The Press.” Railways resources were fully committed for some time to come on the provision of new waggons for a wide range of goods, especially containers and palletised commodities, said the Minister. "The 1974 Commission of Inquiry into the Meat Industry stated that rail accounted for possibly less than 5 per cent of total livestock transport, whereas in the peak years rail carried more than 80 per cent of this traffic.

"This decline has been very rapid over the last few years,” he said, “as is shown by the fact that livestock at present carried by rail is only about one-tenth of that carried as recently as 1961. “It would be a waste of economic resources to embark on a costly livestock waggon building programme at the expense of other equipment, which is far more urgently needed,” he said. “The cartage of livestock by rail has always been a costly business, and indeed uneconomic to the department because of the seasonal peak loadings and the need for maintenance of stock yards and road to rail loading facilities.” He said the fleet of livestock waggons was now very small and c uld be expected to be fully phased out by next year, as the waggons were too old to be maintained any longer. “On the other hand,” said the Minister, “the road transport industry has built up a modern, efflicent fleet of vehicles for this purpose. I am satisfied that, in the present economic situation, the

proper course to follow is to leave the carriage of livestock to road transport, and to leave the Railways free to build up a stock of modem goods waggons that will be needed for all-year-round transport of goods on an increasing scale.” In view of the economic difficulties that the country was facing, one would hesitate to criticise a move that obviously seemed designed to cut out an uneconomic service, said the vicechairman of the transport committee of North Canterbury Federated Farmers (Mr A. L. Mulholland). On the other hand, before the withdrawal of this service became a fact, they would want to be absolutely certain that all areas could be adequately and economically served by road transport. He believed that, compared with existing rail rates, it would be prohibitive to cart stock between the West Coast and Canterbury by road transport. Mr Mulholland said that he would like to see some easing of restrictions on road transport, such as that on back loading. Back loading made possible better use of vehicles and through that more realistic schedules of charges. It was possible that had there been a progressive re-

placement of stock-carrying waggons over the years a better class of waggon might have been available. Trucking companies are unlikely to have any major problems in taking over livestock cartage from the Railways. The Road Transport Association’s executive director, Mr B. P Cresham, said today that the decision of the Railways to opt out of stock carrying was not “wildly exciting news.” Mr Cresham said the move would place a strain on King Country and West Coast truck operators, where a lot of stock was carried by rail because of poor road conditions. “Nationally, something like only 3 per cent of stock carried goes by rail, so it should be able to be absorbed without any major problems,” Mr Cresham said. Skating.—The Soviet Union’s newest figure-skating sensation, the 12-year-old Moscow schoolgirl, Yelena Vodorezova, has won the Soviet Women’s figureskating title at her first appearance in the national championships in Volgograd. B 0. Olympics.—The official opening of the Olympic Village in Montreal has been set for June 22 and the first athletes competing in the 1976 Games will move into the village on July 1, officials announced. An estimated 11/100 athletes and team officials will live in the village during the Olympics.