RAILWAY WORKS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 302, 17 September 1936, Page 8

RAILWAY WORKS

Money For Resumed Construction £654,550 TO BE VOTED A total of £654,550 for the resumed construction of railway lines on which work had been abandoned is set down in the Public Works Estimates for the year ending March 31, 1937. Last financial year only £BOBB was spent on these lines. In addition, £715,400 is provided for improvemeste to and new facilities for open lines. The work on the East« Coast line from Gisborne to Napier requires £163,000, for the Gisborne-Waikokopu section, the section from Waikokopu to Wairoa £22,500, and the section from Wairoa to’ Putorino, £100,500. In addition, earthquake and flood damage restoration between Putorino and Napier will absorb £48,000. The grand total needed for the East Coast line until March 31, 1937, is therefore £334,000. Next in magnitude is the South Island Main Trunk work, the WJiara-nui-Parnassus section involving an expenditure of £190,000 to March 31, 1937. The resumed work on the WestportInangahua line will require £lOO,OOO this year. Smaller items include £B5OO for land claims, pits and quarries and small liabilities for losses on goods in transit. The sum of £5O is provided for surveys of new lines. For permanent-way material an amount of £22,000 is required. Improvements to existing railway facilities and additions to open lines will cost £715,400 during the remainder of the current year.

For Wellington’s new station and yard the allocation to. the end of next March is £243,000, and for finishing the Tawa Flat deviation £12,000 is to be appropriated. The electrification of the WellingtonJohnsonville line will need £47,000 of the £90,000 the work will finally entail. The electrification of the WellingtonPaekakariki section/ will require £193,525. A new station and yard;facilities at Christchurc, ultimately to cost £700,000, is to be voted £50,000 until the end of March as a start.

The easement of grades on existing railway lines and miscellaneous improvements will involve £162,’475. Provision of garage and terminal facilities for railway road motor services will require an expenditure of £30,000.