Computer aids Railway

Press, 20 February 1979, Page 11

Computer aids Railway

) pa Wellington The completion of the • first stage of the Railways ■ department SIM traffic - monitoring system was - marked in a short ceremony. The Minister of Rail- ' ways (Mr McLachlan) r pressed the button to start ; the first stage of the sys--1 tern working on the 5 Woodville-Napier-Gisborne 1 line. j| The new system will i ultimately bring New ZeaI land’s 26,000 railway waggons under direct j computer control. j The chief traffic man- » ager (Mr B. McKeown) i said details of all in- . coming and outgoing i waggons would be fed into 1 computer terminals at

each of the three stations. This meant that staff at the computer centre in Wellington could quickly answer queries concerning the whereabouts of a waggon. As well as saving time, the new system would enable railways’ staff to assess the efficiency of particular yards in moving rolling stock, and it would cut down the number of waggons needed, he said. B.v the end of the year, traffic monitoring systems centres would be brought into use at Auckland, Te Rapa, Mount Maunganui, Wanganui, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, resulting in an estimated 8 per cent saving in waggon use. Mr McKeown could not estimate the financial sav-

ing but said the saving in rolling stock would be substantial. “A few years ago, we were talking of $lOOO or $2OOO to build a waggon, but now we are talking of tens of thousands,” he said. Investigations into computerised rail traffic control in New Zealand began in 1970 and three years later a pilot scheme was started on the 363 km Woodville-Napier-Gisborne line. The line was considered ideal because all trains stopped at Woodville. All waggon numbers could be checked there and Napier was a busy station with industry, waggon maintenance workshops and private sidings.