Waggon shortage hits Lyttelton ships hard

Press, 24 February 1979, Page 1

Waggon shortage hits Lyttelton ships hard

A shortage of refrigerated railway waggons has delayed two ships at Lyttelton for a week, at a cost of more than $20,000 a day. The situation was chronic, said the agent for the ships Roman Reefer and Jana, Captain R. F. Fast, shipping manager in Christchurch for Geo. H. Scales, Ltd. “We seem to be caught up in a situation caused by the Railways allowing the number of refrigerated waggons to run down to the stage where they are not available when they are needed most,” Captain Fast said.

Big meat shipments to Russia, Korea, and Japan were being seriously delayed because railway waggons were only trickling into the port from freezing works. Captain Fast said the ships’ loading had already been delayed by a week. Their departure dates were

still only approximate. “The cost must ultimately come back on New Zealand, in addition to our creditability reputation for not meeting schedules,” he said. Other shipping sources see the situation as an indication of the results of allowing railway rolling stock to run down with the coming of containers and not now being able to

cope with conventional loading. Captain Fast said he was not in a position to comment on other parts of New Zealand. “We have an influx of conventional shipping at present,” he said. The district traffic manager of the Railways Department (Mr D. M. Patchett) agreed that a waggon shortage existed and was

caused by an unusually high seasonal demand. “Most other times the waggons are standing idle, but between Lyttelton and Timaru we have problems at present,” he said. Captain Fast said the delay cost more than $20,000 a day for the two ships.

“They should be on their way now, but it appears it may be the end of next week,” he said. “We are actively promoting our export trade but we cannot get the cargo off our own wharves,” he said.

Only two gangs were being worked in the Roman Reefer when four gangs and two night gangs should have been working. In the Russian ship Jana, two or three gangs have been worked, because attempts have been made to get some of the meat brought to the port by road.

In both ships watersiders have had to stand idle, waiting for cargo to arrive.