AIR TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 110, 12 May 1938, Page 25

AIR TRANSPORT

EFFECT ON RAIL

AUSTRALIAN COMPARISONS^

(From ''The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, May 7.

Civil aviation .in Australia is • becoming an increasingly keen competitor with. the railways, not itierely for. passengers, but also for freight. In both "the-railways have, and will continue to have for many years, the advantage of spacious accommodation. The airlines must restrict the number of passengers and amount of freight; but' they offer 1 the greater attraction of speed in transit,

Aerial freight rates from Sydney, to other capitals compare favourably with rates, on the railways. For instance, the rate from Sydney to Adelaide is 9d a pound, and 6d a pound to any intermediate point. Goods weighing 20 lb would thus cost. 15s to send by air to' Adelaide. The passenger freight (as distinct from slow goods freight) cost from Sydney to Adelaide of the same gobds would be 16s 9d. By air, the trip takes 43 hours; by rail, slightly more-than 36 hours.

. , On the Sydney-Brisbane service, the freight rate ,is 9d a pound. A 201b package can be flown to Brisbane in 2} hours for 15s, against just under 19 hours for 7s 9d passenger rate by train. The freight rate to other capitals is 6d a pound t*o Melbourne,and Is 9d to Perth. Thus, a 201b package can be. flown from Sydney to Melbourne for 10s in 2J hours, compared with 10s 9d at passenger freight rates by train in 15 hours. On the trip to Perth, the 201b fro;m Sydney, via Melbourne and Adelaide, would cost 35s and take 30 ■hours.iin "transit. Passenger freight cost by train is 32s lid, and the time taken 4 days 12 hours 10 minutes;

Passenger rates are approximately the same when the cost of sleeperberths are added •to the cost of train travel. The airlines have an advantage of vastly decreasing the time of travel and also of reducing incidental expenses en route.

The inroads on train business have been so great that the railways departments of New South Wales and Victoria at least have considered, and may adopt, projects of running their own aeroplane services.