Ferry ban: parties to meet today

Press, 26 March 1980, Page 1

Ferry ban: parties to meet today

PA " Wellington The Shipping Industry Tribunal will meet in Web . lington this morning with Railways officials, and representatives of Cook : Strait rail ferry deck of- ' fleers, who yesterday re- ! imposed their ban on night i sailings. j Merchant Service Guild members decided at a meeting to ban all freight for yesterday’s sailings, and not to man the 8 p.m, and 10.40 p.m. sailings from Wellington to Picton. i They also withdrew "good will” from the Railways Department and passed a vote of no-confi-dence in its handling of industrial relations matters. Their meeting caused the cancellation of the 7.20 a.m. sailing and a threehour delay in the 10 a.m, sailing from Wellington. The guild has alleged that the January wage rise for ferrv engineer officers had eroded a traditional relativity in favour of deck officers, and that the Rail’ ways had done nothing about a tribunal directive

-f February 25 to prepare and submit proposals to the guild to resolve the relativity dispute. The department wants to cancel night sailings, as a fuel-saving move, but the guild , says that that does not correct the loss of relativity. From today the officers will man only the 7.20 a.m., 11.40 a.m., and 4 p.m. sailings of the Arahanga and Aratika, and the 10 a.m., 2.20 p.m., and 6.40 p.m. sailings of the Aramoana and Aranui, in each case from Wellington and Picton.

The Marlborough Harbour Board wants to see the Minister of Railways (Mr McLachlan) to tell him that Cook Strait ferries should not be diverted to Lyttelton.

It is believed that the board will ask Mr McLachland to receive a deputation to discuss an announcement made by the General Manager of Railways (Mr T. M. Hayward) last Friday. Mr Hayward said that

his department was considering running one weekly ferry to Lyttelton. The ferry under consideration is the Aratika, but no other details of the proposal have been disclosed.

Such a service could begin as early as August, a reliable source said. It was proposed, the source said, to take the ferry on a Saturday daylight sailing to Lyttelton, and leave again for Wellington on the Saturday evening. Only vehicles would be carried.

A new linkspan would have to be built at Lyttelton before any rail traffic could be handled.

“In no way could running that ferry to Lyttelton be economic,” said the general manager of the Marlborough Harbour Board (Mr M. J.- Goulden) at a board meeting on Monday.o It was difficult to believe that “some South Island interests” could consider that a Cook Strait, ferry could succeed where three previous ferries had failed, he said.