Railways losing money to trucks

Press, 2 March 1984, Page 4

Railways losing money to trucks

The Railways Corporation has had a “significant” revenue loss since the new transport delicensing law was introduced in November, according to the chief

transport licensing officer .of the corporation, Mr Barry Leonard. He said that during the first three months of the law net-tonne kilometres had dropped 3 per cent. “We are not prepared to put a figure on the drop in revenue except to say it is significant,” he said. Mr Leonard said that the drop in revenue had been caused mainly by the Railways lowering its rates to remain competitive. The downturn was widespread and not resticted to one or two items. Mr Leonard believed that it would be dangerous to extrapolate the initial downturn to predict a percentage drop for the year. Mr Peter McKenzie, controller of land transport at the Ministry of Transport, said that it was too soon to make conclusions about the amount of traffic that had moved from rail to road. A lot of permits had been sold, but Mr McKenzie said that it would be two more months before a clearer picture was available. Mr McKenzie said that a number of trucks which might have been acting illegally could have applied for permits. Other permits had been sold for the future.

■"Until we have studied all these matters we cannot say how much traffic has moved from rail to road,” he said.