RAILWAY POLICY

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 5, 7 January 1930, Page 10

RAILWAY POLICY

"NO NEW LINES"

COMPLETING PRESENT TRUNKS

A denial was made to-day by the Primo Minister (the Eight Hon. Sir Joseph Ward), of a published statement that "New Zealand is preparing to invest another £15,000,000 in new railways. " : . : ' This assertion, said Sir Joseph, is misleading, and is not correct. "The Government," he explained, "is not embarking on tho construction of any new lines, but is merely hastening tho completion of the existing trunk lines, which is essential in the interests of the Dominion as a whole. The Government's policy in respect to transport has already been laid down by me on various occasions, and may bo briefly reiterated here as-follows: —- "To complete the trunk lines as tfyp foundation of the system; "Not to construct any more short branch lines where the transport needs can be adequately and more economically catered for by other means of transport; "To .investigate the position of the present branch lines with a view to deciding as to their future working; "To write down the railway capital by the amount contributed thereto from revenue, and cancel the present subsidy from the Consolidated Fund; "To co-ordinate the railway and motor road construction policies; '' To take steps to bring about coordination between road and rail transport services." In conclusion Sir Joseph said it could be gainsaid that the railways must be the backbone of the Dominion's transport system, and thai the policy announced above, which.the Government was pursuing, would eventually obtain a complete system of unified transport based on a correct degree of co-ordina-tion between road and railway.