Railways system ‘very safe’

Press, 12 August 1980, Page 26

Railways system ‘very safe’

PA ' Wellington The public image of the Railways has been defended by its retiring deputy general manager, Mr I. McGregor. “We have a very safe railway system. It is always - Railways and its management that gets the blame when something goes wrong, but really we pride ourselves in our safety standards. We have faith in New Zeland Railways/’ he said. Mr McGregor, aged 56, retires 40 years after starting as a 13s 9d , a week apprentice fitter, in his home town of Dunedin. His successor as secdnd-in command of the country’s rail system is Mr G. Purdy. “Okay,- we have had those crashes and delays, and so on. But compared with the accident rate on the roads it is infinitely small.

“From my pont of view the public generally do not think too badly of the Railways, but the image given by reports in the newspapers is what the public see. There are a lot of satisfied customers, particularly on the freight side, but they do not make news. “We pride ourselves on

our standards. We have tight inspections of rolling stock. Our signalling Jis fail-safe. We have one of the strictest training systems for engine drivers in the world. But no matter how good a system you have, if you get a human failure there is. little you ran do about it.”

Mr McGregor accepts there has been a change in the N.Z.R. image during the last decade. Part of this he puts down to political decisions — the Labour Government’s refusal to allow the. Railways to raise its charges in line with inflation, the National Government’s allowing road transport to compete with rail over distances up to 150 km.

But the main reason why the Railways became a multi-million dollar lossmaker was the general rundown in the economy, he says.

“In 1973-74 our tonnages of freight had climbed to over 13 million tonnes. Over the last few years it has dropped to 11.7 million tonnes. We have lost nearly 1 million tonnes of revenue-earning freight. “It is that which made the difference between

losing, breaking even and coming out oh top. “When we were on top we could afford to pay millions for social services like suburban trains, branch lines and some long-haul services. We cannot afford that now.” So how does the N.Z.R. get out of that rut? “Where freight is concerned. with the developments and improve-, ments we have, we should be able to break even or even make a profit - “But for the rest, if the New Zeland public want us to continue running social services, they must be prepared to accept that we will show a loss?’

Mr McGregor’s training with the Railways was with engineering. After a five-year apprenticeship, and attending night-school five nights a week, he became a draughtsman and then a locomotive engineer in Wellington. He spent 13 years in Auckland before moving to the New Zealand High Commission in London as New Zealand Railway’s advisory engineer. After returning to lington in 1970 he moved up through the mechanical engineer’s branch, finally becoming deputy general manager last year.