THE RIMUTAKA LINE.

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 45, 21 February 1917, Page 12

THE RIMUTAKA LINE.

WHY IT SHOULD BE DEVIATED-

DISABILITIES NOW BEING

SUFFERED,

Everywhere in. Masterton. the same two needs are stressed—better communication and more population. The 'people, have great ■ hopes thaifc some day the deviation of the.Rimutaka route will be brought about, but in spit-e of frequent promises by Ministers of the Crown; little. progress has as yet.been made in this, direction. . The difficulties of the present route are : apparent, and it.would seem that, tho conditions making for quick and. comfortable travelling and the cheap hauling of goojjs were completely ignored when the line was designed; A road. for. cart traffic •was made .from Upper Hufct io Feathereton between 1854 and ISSB, and a fairly direct route was taken. When the. railway was built 20 years later a. detour was" made which p to tlie ordinary mind was then, and is to-day, a cause for protest.

Accepted asioms of railway engineers are: (1) To.get from, one point to another by the shortest route; (2) that it is preferable to go around an obstacle rather than, climb, over it; (3) that, in getting around, friction, or sharp curves should where possible be avoided; but (1) if you must get over any obstacle take the easiest grade possible. All these, apparently, were ignored. • . A CONTINUOUS AGITATION. •" Practically evei' since ;the line was built there has been agitation to abandon ■ it, and in 1899 the, Public Works Department' reported on the cost*.of running the present line and on the possi-

bilitics of making improvements. Mr. P. S. Hay, an acknowledged authority, was responsible for the report, in which, it was. shown that each of the prime conditions necessary for the best success had been ignored. In the first place, the line was seven miles longer than it need be; secondly, obstacles had been found and hills climbed on steep grades, only to come down again at some intermediate point, there to resume the climb ; and it was pointed out that while the highest point reached was only 1144 feet above sea level, the climbing done between Upper Hutfc and Woodside was more than double that, namely, 2485 ft. EXPENSIVE ROUTE. It is stated that, by reason of the route taken along" the hillsides instead of the valley, five and a-half miles are traversed on sharp carves of five chains' radius. All travellers on the line recognise the friction by the squealing of'tlie gear in passing around these bends, but few people realise that the strain is so great that the wearing parts of the carriages last only a fourth of the time they would if employed on an ordinary. 6tretch. The engineers state that <a ten-chains' radius could be secured.The difference would be comparable to the gentle curve of tho • tramway on jjambton-fluay and the sharp bends around the 'Basin Reserve. As to the excessive cost of hauling goods over the present route, it is authoritatively stated that, by the Woodside. route, a given load could be taken to Upper \Hutt for £8 4s as against £52 now. FIFTEEN MILES PER HOUR!' From the State's point of view, therefore, n. change would seem more than desirable. It was none the less so from ip. traveller's point of view. A com]jarision shows that, taking the ordinary train service, the first 21 miles from Wellington to Upper ITutt takes 57 minutes, the next. 18 miles one hour and 40 min■|.ites. Or, again, the first 20 miles from Mastorton, going south, takes one hour three minutes, and the next' 25 miles two hours 11 minutes. The'result is that the train service, .Wellingt-ou to. Masterton, runs at an average speed of 15 miles per hour. Why, then, is this railway, so.unsatisfactory in many, respects, not altered? The only reason so far on record is that given by ' the 'late ' Mr. iSeddon when he told ono of the many deputations: "You have a railway, such •as it is. There are other districts'which Iwv9 nop?, Y«!i must make tht* best of 1 iK" it goes ..without gaj^g. ihat. su,ch_.

a reason is not accepted in the Wairarapa, even though it' may' be looked upon in Wellington as a reason not' to press the agitation any further for the present. "Wellington people," said Mr. C. E. DanielL. "simply interest themselves in the role of forwarding agents.They do not. appear to interest themselves in-. the productive possibilities. of the land, or the economic handling of the products of others. Then, in the Waira.rapa, where tho handicap, is very real, there is a tendency to take a local view, and when an effort is made to press home tho business aspect some crank raises a side, issue, ■ and so the matter is postponed again indefinitely."