THE RIMUTAKA INCLINE

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 182, 30 April 1936, Page 10

THE RIMUTAKA INCLINE

Prompted no doubt by the new Government’s policy in railway construction, the people of the Wairarapa are reviving the agitation, begun as far back as 1899, for a deviation reducing the stiff gradients and haulage expenses on the Rimutaka railway incline. There has been a good deal of dissatisfaction in the Wairarapa since the transfer of the Napier mail trains and fast freight services to the West Coast line through Palmerston North and the Manawatu Gorge. Ihe district has complained that in addition to having to suffer reduced train facilities it has been thrust into a back water. Road transport in recent years has provided some compensation, and the introduction of railcars will improve things for passengers. It is considered, nevertheless, that as some provision will be necessary to handle the increased railway business estimated to result from the completion of the East Coast line from Napier to Gisborne, the Rimutaka incline should be improved in order that the heavy pressure on the West Coast line may be relieved. Various deviation routes have been suggested, all of them costly. One plan was to run the railway round to Lowry Bay, through the hills to the Wainui Valley, and on through a series of tunnels to the Wairarapa, emerging at the lake side. In 1924 the Government of the day incorporated in an eight-year plan of railway works in various localities a scheme to cost £1,000,000 for a Rimutaka deviation by what was known as the tunnel route. The tunnel, of five miles and a quarter from Mungaroa to Cross Creek, would have shortened the length of the route considerably and eased the grades, and the way would have been open for further improvements on the remaining grades as time went on and the demands of traffic increased. The interest charges were estimated at between £40,000 and £45,000 per annum, off-set by a saving of £45,000 per annum in operating costs under various heads, rhe- Government’s decision was that the work should be begun in the fifth year of the eight-year plan with an expenditure of £125,000, and finished in four years. But nothing more was heard of it because that auspicious fifth year unfortunately coincided with the arrival of the slump. Whether the arguments that persuaded the Government in 1924 to adopt the scheme would hold good to-day is a matter for expert 'opinion. Conditions of transport have changed. The simplest argument is that the Wairarapa is entitled to a better direct railway than the one it has now. The Engineer-in-Chief of the Public Works Department, in his report on the subject, put it this way: “While the deviation of the Rimutaka railway may not be a crying necessity for financial reasons, yet when funds are available to put the work in hand it can be justified, and its benefit from a social point of view cannot be controverted. In addition to such savings as can be assessed in pounds, shillings and pence, there is also the improvement in travelling conditions to the general public and the live stock carried on the line, and the saving of time.”