RIMUTAKA DEVIATION

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 109, 9 May 1923, Page 6

RIMUTAKA DEVIATION

THE PROPOSED TUNNEL SCHEME

SUGGESTED IN 1919.

A great deal of interest has been aroused, particularly in the Wairarapa and the contiguous districts mostly concerned, in the indication given yesterday by the Minister of Publio Works that •the proposal was to take the WairarapaWellington line through by tunnel to escape the necessity of going over the Rimutaka Incline. It is interesting to note that this tunnel scheme was the one suggested by Mr. J. P. Maxwell, exGeneral Manager of New Zealand Kailways, in September, 1919, to a "Post" reporter. In making the suggestion Mr. Maxwell said : "If a new line is made between Upper Hutt and Pigeon Bush, with a tunnel not steeper than 1 in 35 between Upper Hutt and Mangaroa, a tunnel of about a mile between Mangaroa and Fern Plat, a railway summit adopted near Fern Flat cutting out Kaitoke and at a lower level, descent thence to the plains by tunnels and gradients not steepeV than 1 in 35, such a line might be three or four miles shorter than the present one between Upper Hutt and Pigeon Bush, tha reconstruction being about thirty miles long. It would be the ihortest and quickest route between Wellington and Featherston. D> would be costly, but probably les3 so than another railway by another route. The cost is the key to the suggestion I am offering. If electric power is available the railway can, of course, be built on the lines I am suggesting. The steep grade and central rail of the Eimutaka would be abandoned, and all sharp curves on this main line would be wiped out. If tunnels and structures were built for a double line a good working line would be secured for all time." Mr. Maxwell stated he did not think the scheme would be nearly as big as that involved in the construction of the Otira tunnel.