Picton rail report ‘horrifying’

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 1

Picton rail report ‘horrifying’

Canterbury railway men are shocked at a report that the Picton-Christchurch passenger rail service may be scrapped.

The Canterbury branch secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen. Mr P. S. Corliss, said that he was horrified to read in the “New Zealand Times" of a study recommending the cutting of the passenger service.

The Sunday newspaper’s report said that a report by the Ministry of Transport recommends that the Picton passenger rail service be scrapped and all patrons be carried by Railways Road Services buses.

“Just when we thought we had this service safe with an increase in patronage and new carriages it is taken from under us,” Mr

Corliss said. Patronage on the rail link has increased in the last two years — 12 per cent in 1981 and 19 per cent last year. A total of 78,101 people used the line last year.

The assistant general manager of the Railways Corporation. Mr H. G. Purdy, said that any such report would be a Government matter and it was not up to him to comment. “If this service goes the Southerner will be under threat and before long none of our social services will exist,” said Mr Corliss. Moves to have the report made public were quashed by the Minister of Transport, Mr Gair, using the power of the new Official Information Act, the newspaper report said.