EAST COAST RAILWAY

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 60, 4 December 1933, Page 8

EAST COAST RAILWAY

Estimates of Revenue and Completion Cost reports in readiness By Telegraph.—Press Association. Hastings, December 3. The southern section of the East Coast railway committee recently appointed to investigate the possibilities o" taking over and completing the railway abandoned by the Government will meet to consider exhaustive reports prepared by various authoiities to-morrow. The following are the main points in the reports dealing with the southern seftionj —

The Government has already spent £2.829,400 on the Hue between Napier and Waikokopu. The committee’s aim is to prevent the waste of that huge amount.

According'to a report prepared by Mr. Trevor Smith, Public Works Department district engineer at Wairoa, the estimated cost of completing the constructional work from Waikokopu to Napier at a sufficient standard to provide the safe and speedy running of trains, passenger and goods, is £98.000. A sum of £12,700 may be needed for other work, making a total of £110,600. To those figures must be added £BO,OOO for rolling stock, including two Diesel rail-cars and two Diesel trailers. The engineer’s rough estimate of revenue annually excluding passenger traffic, is £38,000. Th e estimated operating costs, including depreciation and maintenance is £37,000. The'Public Works estimate for the completion of the line was £340,783. This provided for the erection of complete station accommodation and for running a much more extensive passenger service. The estimated feeder value is set down at £5400. A further report, compiled after investigation into potential live stock and goods traffic, indicates that the potential revenue is greater than that estimated by the engineer. This .report deals with the comparative aspects of road and rail transport and the great development of value along the line of potential productivity of the at present undeveloped land. ’ The committee considers that the results already achieved are very satisfactory, and feels that the outcome of its investigations, which have been extremely thorough, are most encouraging.