RAIL AND ROAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 107, 2 November 1937, Page 10

RAIL AND ROAD

TRANSPORT POLICY

COMPLEMENTARY SYSTEMS

GOVERNMENT'S VIEW

The belief of the Government that it would be in the best interests of the railways and the road motor services, and certainly of the community as a whole, if the systems were complementary to one another rather than competitive, is expressed by the Minister of Railways (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) in his annual report, which was tabled in the House of Representatives this afternoon.

• "There can be no doubt," states the Minister, "that the advent of the internal combustion engine and its application1 to commercial road motor vehicles has enlarged the outlook and scope of the transport industry very considerably, and that this development has had the effect of materially adding to, the difficulties associated with the administration of railway affairs in this and many overseas countries. ■ Indeed, •it can be said that no progressive railway policy could be pursued today without due cognisance being taken of the useful and important part now played by the road motor vehicles in the field of transport, and in the sphere of national economies. "Probably no aspect of the many and diverse problems arising from the advent and rapid rise of the road motor as a major element in the transport industry has proved more difficult of solution by those charged with the administration of transport affairs during the last decade, than that of defining the economic sphere of each of the component parts of the transport machine, and in evolving an equitable and workable plan for the co-ordina-tion of road and rail transport, based upon a right conception of the respective functions of each of these forms of transport. Unfortunately, and despite the' obvious urgency for decisive action being taken in the matter, the question of the adjustment of the roadrail problem in this country was allowed for many years to be relegated to the background, and this neglect, i coupled with the continued expansion of the business of the commercial road motor services at the expense of railborne traffic, brought about conditions which progressed to the point where the financial stability of the national transportation system—the railwayswas threatened. "DISASTROUS EFFECTS." "These developments, which were not peculiar to the New Zealand railway system alone, and are too well known to need further recapitulation here, inevitably increased the average cost of transport services, and no country, including our own, has been spared the necessity of enforcing regulations aimed at effecting some measure' of control of commercial road services and going some distance towards eliminating, in the interests of national economy, the disastrous effects of wasteful duplication of services and unbridled competition in the transport field. "The Government is firmly convinced that, while the conditions of competition prevailing in the transport industry of this country are no doubt advantageous to some individual 'interests, a' continuance of such' conditions would be seriously harmful to the national economy. The Government believes that the rationalisation of transport, ensuring that the railways and road motors will be encouraged to function fully in their proper . economic spheres, and as complementary to one another rather than as competitive units, would be in the best interests, of both systems, and certainly of the community as a whole. The Government's policy of co-ordination of the existing lines of transport pn the principal routes throughout the Dominion and the elimination of redundant units with the application of principles of rationalisation is directed towards this end. . . ' SINGLE CONTROL PRINCIPLE. "Under the system of control envisaged, the whole,of the services on certain routes will be under the control of the Railways Department; and, as the separate organisations will disappear, the necessary services by road will operate under one set of overhead costs. Moreover, the Railways Department will be able to route the traffic in the1 most economical manner in the public interest, so that goods which are now unnecessarily, being carried by road will be carried by rail, while, at the same time, where the public interest requires the continuation of any particular road service for the carriage of perishable or other lines of traffic, this will be provided.? By this means the system of charging on the railway, which is one that has been found necessary in railways the world over, and: also'in road services that have grown to any dimensions, will not.be destroyed by the inroads of Individual transport units which1 are unconcerned with the Dominion's need for transport at low cost of basic raw materials, or with the problems associated with huge peak-loads, one-way traffic, etc.