Expresses both stand idle

Press, 11 August 1979, Page 11

Expresses both stand idle

PA Wellington The two Silver Star night expresses are standing idle and untouched in railway yards in Wellington and Auckland, two months after the trains were taken off for modifications. No work has been done to convert the two stain-less-steel sleepers into part-seater, part-sleeper trains. The Silver Star trains, dropped in June as part of a Railways plan to save •e2 milion a year, were to be converted and reintroduced in a new trimmed down service early in the New Year.

But, with the National Union of Railwaymen complaining bitterly about the dropping of a prestige and labour-intensive service, the row spread into a general discussion on railway economics.

From there it became the row over freight forwarding, union bans being applied and workers suspended.

The offer of a Commission of Inquiry into the role of freight-forwarding in the railway system solved the freight dispute, but the original row over the Silver Star was left unsettled. It is believed occasional requests have been made to the union’s Wellington and Auckland branches to move the trains to the workshops. But nothing has been done, and a hitch over an agreement on health precautions during the removal of the asbestos insulation in the trains has stalled progress.