THE PRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1978. The east-west rail services

Press, 23 June 1978, Page 12

THE PRESS FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 1978. The east-west rail services

The Railways Department has said that it is studying representations from interested groups before it decides firmly what passenger rail services it will run between Canterbury and the West Coast when trains replace the present railcars. If it is earnest in its regard for submissions, the department may have difficulty in reducing the service to little more than one train a day each way. Groups on both sides of the alps have made substantial cases to support their arguments that a more frequent service is needed. Many of the groups have implied that they will not be satisfied unless new railcars are put on the line. Certainly railcars appear to meet the demand far better than larger trains which must, of necessity, run less frequently.

But in the meantime, the railcars are simply not available. Successive governments can fairly be criticised for allowing this situation to arise. More profitable than castigating past governments will be efforts to decide on senices that, in the immediate future and the long term, will meet the demand and yet not require the Railways Department to sustain enormous losses. Immediately, it appears clear that the department must schedule as many trains as possible at times which suit the largest number of travellers and supplement that service with additional runs, either with a reduced number of refurbished railcars or by putting additional buses on the road. The danger to be avoided is that a less frequent service may cause a decline in the use of public transport services and this patronage might never be recovered. One train a day could not

attract the same number of passengers that railcars have been able to attract by running two or three times each day. Buses running through either Lewis or Arthur's Pass are not. however, a satisfactory, permanent solution. All forms of road transport are unreliable at times on those routes and the needs of certain groups, such as school groups travelling into the mountains or to facilities already established on the West Coast, cannot be met by buses running on roads which diverge greatly from the line of the railway.

Railcars have proved themselves so satisfactory for providing the frequent, flexible service needed on the route that the Railways Department must take very seriously the suggestions that new railcars be built in New Zealand or bought overseas for the West Coast line and, perhaps, for other lines. The question of future passenger services on the West Coast line is primarily a local one, but it opens up the whole question of the role of rail passenger services in New Zealand. Much imported fuel will be saved if dependence on the private car can be reduced. This will not be achieved by severely limiting the choices of times for travel. This consideration alone might justify the provision of capital to re-equip the railways with railcars and to meet any reasonable losses. The Government must face the further consideration of the effect of the rail service on the whole West Coast region. Any increase in the isolation of the region is bound to make the West Coast less attractive and less capable of maintaining the population on which it depends for advancement.