Children may suffer if railcars cut

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 2

Children may suffer if railcars cut

Cuts in West Coast railcar services are concerning members of the Teachers’ College Lod.es Committee. The committee runs two lodges on the West Coast, at I"hbonnie and Kotuku. and has an interest in facilities at Arthur's Pass. Further deterioration of the Railways' services would mean that the use of well developed facilities for outdoor and residential education would Le denied to a significant number of young people, said the committee’s vice-chairman (Mr A. W. Tritt).

Although teachers' college staff and students often stayed at the lodges, the main users were classes from primary and secondary schools in Canterbury and Westland, he said. "Before the reduction of the number of railcar units available for this service, large school parties could make full use of the lodges," Mr Tritt said. "This became difficult when the service was restricted. The prospect of further curtailment dismays those of us who have worked for many years building up the facilities.”

In the past, the two West Coast lodges catered for up ■to 700 pupils and teachers a term. None of the lodges i was served by alternative I public transport and a single) I daily passenger service each way from Canterbury and Westland was not likely to cope with this traffic if pas'senger capacity was limited, I Mr Tritt said. i Mr J. A. MacDonald, of iGreymouth, a councillor of | the National Union of Railwaymen. said yesterday: “When the Railways Department said that its plan to .cut the number of rail pasjsenger services from 29 to 16 was only tentative, it was ! telling us a load of rubbish. "The plan appears to be fact," he said. "We have it on very good authority that ’The Press’ has called tenders for the transport by road of newspapers from Christchurch to Greymouth and that three tender prices are being considered by the company at present.

“That means, in effect, that the Railways has already made up its mind to cut the West Coast - Canterbury services by 13 from lAugst 1," said Mr Macdon-

i aid, who is liasion officer for the Otira, Greymouth, W e s t p o r t, Springfield, Christchurch and Addington branches o. the union. (The manager of the Press Company, Mr R. Barker, s?.id yesterday that the company had not called tenders from carriers for the cartage of copies of “The Press” from Christchurch to the West Coast.) Mr MacDonald said the union challenged the department to engage a consultant engineer. satisfactory to both sides, to bring down a full report on the condition of railcars now being used. “What we want to know is the exact condition of the railcars, and how the consultant would view either repair or engine replacement. The union is prepared to share the cost of such an exercise,” Mr MacDonald said. Asked what action the union would take if the cuts became reality, Mr MacDonald said that it would depend on what was decided at a full union meeting, but industrial action was “almost a certainty.”