Railways receives interim payment’

Press, 19 April 1982, Page 12

Railways receives interim payment’

PA Wellington. The Railway's Corporation is receiving interim payments to cover the cost of its social services says the corporation’s transport services division. These include such activities as suburban trains and buses, long-distance passenger trains, provincial branch lines, and apprenticeship training. The Government will advance the money fortnightly. The first payment of about $4 million has been made to the corporation. The payments are interim because there is still no formal agreement to what extent the corporation’s social services will be financed by the Government, transport services said. / Government officials of

various departments are still negotiating a formal agreement with the corporation for the working of these social services, they said. The Ministry of Transport’s assistant secretary, Mr John Beckett, confirmed that an interim payment had been made. Asked how much was paid, he said such details should come from the office of the Minister of Transport (Mr Gair). A spokesman for Mr Gair said the interim fortnightly payment was “of the order of $4 million.” It is believed the payments will he made on a level consistent with the cost of running railway social services in the last financial year. This will continue unntil a formal agreement has been reached and the Government has decided the extent it will

finance the services. Before the Railways became a corporation on April 1, the loss-showing social services run by the Railways Department were paid for by money from the Government’s economic stabilisation vote. Under the corporation it is believed social services will be financed from the Government’s transport vote. The payments include a portion of the Urban Transport Council’s $39.8 million allocation for suburban rail services. Of this, the council allocated $25.07 million for suburban rail services in Wellington, and $8.28 million for Auckland. Mr Gain has told the Chartered Institute of Transport that the allocation may be increased in the light of latest costings.