THE MAIN TRUNK

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 89, 12 October 1923, Page 7

THE MAIN TRUNK

DAY TRAVEL OR NIGHT?

CAN THE TRIP BE SHORTENED?

THE CASE FOE THE PUBLIC.

(By '.'. A Traveller.")

Recent statements by the Minister, and also by the General Manager, of Bailways in regard to the Main Trunk railway between Wellington and Auckland are a matter of interest and concern to the travelling public of, the Dominion, which makes bo much use of this line. The Minister speaks of "a considerable section of the community who are strongly in favour of night travelling," but admits that " night running is much more expensive to the Department than day running."

The question arises as to what proportion of the travelling public prefers to do the journey by night to doing it by day. So far as the general public is concerned, one feels sure that the Minister is mistaken. Nobody who has ever gone through the eighteen-hour trip between the two chief centres of the North Island would ever willingly go through it again. The writer hae done a good deal of train travelling in other parts of the world, including England, America, Africa, and Australia, as well as many journeys in troop trains during the war, and he can honeßtly say that h e has never experienced anything quite «o painful as the journey between Wellington and Auckland. It would be a different matter if the journey could be accomplished in daylight, or if, as on longdistance trains in other countries, the day carriages were convertible into sleepers. Crossing America in this way, saloon carriage by day and upper and lower berth sleeper by night, is quite comfortable. O n the Main Trunk journey it is practically impossible for most people t 3 sleep in their seats, let alone get a good night's rest. One has only to go through the train, say, in the small hours of the morning, to realise what the effect of such a journey must be, especially on women and children and delicate people. > With the line as it is a daylight service between Wellington and Auckland is quite out of the question. It is not that the distance is excessive—a similai distance in Britain between London and Edinburgh is covered in about eight hours—it is simply that the line is too difficult in its central and extreme southern portion for expresses to run at hio-h speeds. If the distances could be shortened materially and the worst grades and curves superseded, as is actually proposed by the authorities in regard to the section between Wellington and Paekakanki, a daylight run of from 12 to 14 houra would be quite within the limits of reasonable possibility. As the Main liunk railway is the very artery of rail communication in the North Island, one -would think that the authorities would welcome any proposal that would enabla them to save the expense of night running on the railway. Yet when a proposal is made for a B hort cut between two points, saving sixteen or seventeen miles m distance and a series of bad grades and curves, and, probably, shortening the time by at least an hour, we tind the departmental heads absolutely against it. *

LEVIN-MARTON DEVIAIiuN.

The proposal is the -Levin-Marton deviation through Foxton. It ia not new having been before the public for very many years. It would involve the construction of about 40 miles of line, practically all on the level with- no grade exceeding 1 m MO , and no engineering difficulties except the building of bridgel S r ««» Manawatn and Rangitikei Rivers. It would shorten the distance from Levin to Marton by about 17 miles as compared with the present circuitous route by Palmerston North, Feilding, and Halcombe, with its h«avv grades between Feilding and Greatford. The cost has been estimated by the Railway Department a« about £500,000, including alterations to existing stations, etc A Koyal Commission considered the question among others in 1916 and again in 1921 when the proposed Palmerston Aorth deviation, to cost £700,000 was examined. In both instances the heads ?L™ l expressed themselves as strongly opposed to the idea of the Levm-Marton short cut. The Commissions, followed the departmental view in their findings. Last week at ioxton the question was raised again before the Minister and General Manager of Ra,lway 6 , and Mr. M'Villy. is reported a s saying that the whole question of the line had been exhaustively gone into and it had been found to be economically unsound from the stand point of the Department. It would not pay the Department to construct a'ltoe which would not recover in increased revenue the cost of construction. DEPARTMENTAL VIEW. This statement of Mr. M'Vflly's is no doubt intended to shelve the Levin? Marton deviation scheme, at any rate for our time, a« the final'dictum £fthe expert over-ruling the plain layman Mr M'Villy gave no reasons at Foxton but when one comes to look up his evident proposal It ,s by no means convincin" The great pomt he made then was that the 17 miles saved in distance would be 17 miles less for the Department to charge for m issuing tickets, an d 17 miles less for freight and stock charges He estimated a total loss of £70 000 a

W this .eemg a ver y childish argument to the average layman. If the Department i s compelled by law to charge solely on a b J giB %J the law m aWd; if it is merely a tradftion with the Department, then it is time that this was broken, or adapted to meet particular cases. The logical conclusion to Mr. M'Villy's argument is that no line of railway can be shortened without imposing a loss on the Department, and, conversely, that every line should seek its destination by as roundabout a route as possible in order that the Department can get the maximum revenue out of the public on a maximum mileage basis. It is something like the railways built in Turkey on a kilometre bonus; they cover the longest possible distance between two given points no matter what the nature of the country is. Such a policy leaves no room for improvements of the "shortcut character in existing lines. It should rule out the proposed Tawa Flat and Rimutaka tunnels, both of which \viU cost more than the Levin-Marton deviation would do..

i ,ll\™f £ oUrse of his fev"3ence before the 1916 Commission the General Man ager admitted that the Levin-Marton proposal was a Dominion matter not a matter of purely local concern, 'it is also a matter of public as well as of departmental interest. The public, when travelling, is concerned with getting to its destination in the most comfortable manner and the quickest time possible lhe public is more concerned with the Main rrunk railway than with any other line m New -Zealand, and the public would certainly like to travel with more comfort on that line than it enjoys today If night travelling on that line could be rendered unnece«saaL the cub-

lie would appreciate that boon and he prepared to pay for it by at least existing fares over the longer line. Deviations of the Levin-Marton type have been made wholesale in Britain, many in quite recent years, to shorten distances and time between great centres. The mam lines in Britain between two largo centres, as a rule, expressly avoid intervening smaller centres. One could, quote a dozen instances.

A PATCHWORK SYSTEM. The New Zealand railway system has grown up largely on the principle of serving new settlements or of opening up country for settlement. That is what makes the Main Trunk .such a patch-: WF ,*??**"?> esP^aUy the southern "a" of it. A main line of railway should iollow the geometrical principle of the' shortest distance between two points compatible with the flattest grades. *Rom Auckland south to about Horopito the Main Trunk generally follows the direction of a straight line between Wellington and Auckland. Then there" is the huge bend eastward round by ■laihape joining up with the straight lino ' again at Marton. only to swing eastward once more round to Palmereton North. and to strike a straight line again at about Levin. The proposed Levin-Marton; deviatran follows the straight lino, aud cuts out ,t« 17 miles. If the Taihap^ bend could be similarly cut out by a, line up the Wangaehu and its tributary valleys to somewhere near Ohakurie,-thlT distance to Auckland could be shortened again by another 20 miles or so If such deviations were carried out, p° d, t t 6 M° e• between Wellington arid 1 laekakanki improved, as planned, it would be easily possible to run a daylight service between Wellington and Auckland. Apart from that the need for a better line between south of Levin and Mai ton and Wanganui northward Is shown by the eminently successful competition of the road with the rail in this district. There is a frequent service of motors_ between both Palmerston and Wanganui and Marton and Wanganui. The Minister of Bailways, who is also Minister of Public Works, suggested at *oxton the abandonment of the FoxtonPa merston North railway and the subwfv I?" °l % g°°d r°ad- If this is tlle way the Railway Department is goinir to. meet the competition of the road, it o3 T f Til give up the ellost afc competition by a better service in the same district, and this the Levin-Marton deviation would furnish. Once that was carried out, little more would be hand of motor competition in that locality.. From the point of view of the public inansweraWe"" ** *" deViati°n is Un"