RAILWAY FREIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 126, 31 May 1939, Page 51

RAILWAY FREIGHTS

SIMPLIFIED TARIFF

TWO CLASSES CUT OUT

AN EARLY CHANGE

An early reduction of the classifications under which freight on general merchandise carried by the railways has hitherto been charged, from four to two. was mentioned by the General Manager (Mr. G. H. Mackley) in the course of a public address on railway administration at Victoria College last night, wi»sn he was- outlining some of the steps the Department had taken to meet road competition. "Quite a new and interesting method (at least to railway administration) is to be brought into operation in the near future," said Mr. Mackley, "when the four classifications under which general merchandise has hitherto been charged will be reduced to two, the higher classes A and B being eliminated, leaving only the lower classes C and D. This will mean not only a concession to the community generally, but a long looked for simplification of the railway tariff. "Land transport in New- Zealand was not the monopoly of the Railways, and j while competition by shipping services continued to be by no means negligible in its effect on railway operations, the major problem of competition was presented by the rapid development of road transport," said Mr. Mackley. "It is only during the last fifteen years that road transport has become a major factor in the transport industry, but it is today a lusty and formidable rival, and, because of the freedom of action under which it operates is undermining the older established services provided by the railways." With the development of motor transport, the management was confronted with an administrative problem of the first magnitude, and it became clear that, if the railways were to hold their own, definite measures would have to be taken to meet the new conditions. The only course of action open was to popularise and extend the existing services, and to introduce new facilities. PUBLIC APPRECIATION. "The public reaction to the new services and facilities has been one of cordial appreciation, and altogether the measures taken to improve the standard and extend the scope of railway services and amenities are regarded as having been of particular value at a very critical period in the Department's history and are also thought to constitute an effective retort to the charge of 'inertness' and 'lack of initiative' which one hears from time to time levelled at the personnel of the Public Service." The present Government had also taken certain steps, in the national.interest, to terminate the overlapping and duplication of transport services where these conditions existed in marked degree. The Government had very early reached the conclusion that, so long as the" road freight services operating over the principal routes mi the Dominion were run as small units independent of railway freight services, little or no progress in real and effective co-ordination would be possible, and economic waste brought about by overlapping of road and rail services would continue. The Government had therefore put into effect a policy designed to secure the coordination of the transport units operating over the principal routes throughout the Dominion, and, had authorised tL. purchase of some fifty-four road services operating on routes in direct and long-distance competition with the railways. The great majority of these services had already been acquired and have passed into the control of the Railway Department. PASSENGER SERVICES. Apart from the road goods services so taken over and operated by the Department, the management had from time to time interested itself in the matter of the^purchase of road passenger services where it had been shown that it would be in the public interest for these services to be controlled and operated in conjunction with rail services. A considerable number of passenger services in various parts had, with the approval of Cabinet, been acquired by voluntary agreement oetween the Department and the vender, and today the Department was the largest operator of both goods and passenger road transport services in the Dominion, and had demonstrated that its administration of road services compared favourably with that of private enterprise, both with respect to the standard of service given and the conditions of employment particularly.