The Feilding Star Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1924 BIG RAILWAY PROGRAMME

Feilding Star, Volume 2, Issue 353, 3 October 1924, Page 4

The Feilding Star Oroua and Kiwitea Counties' Gazette FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1924 BIG RAILWAY PROGRAMME

Air 1 Coates is certainly not marking time as the Minister of Railways. Ho lias had an exceedingly busy year, and the period has been full of worries, ffi-eat an<l little, yet lie has shown not only great executive ability and firmness in deeision, hut imagination and fnitia.tivc. This latter quality is demonstrated, in the programino of improvements and new works he laid before the Hoii.se last night as Minister of Railways. His scheme carries 44 items, ranging in cost from £.IOOO for the Tailiape station to £1,075,000 for Wellington's new railway yards, '£l,ooo,ooo'for the Rimutak-a deviation, and'£39o,ooo for the Palmerston deviation, which must not be confused with the ignored agitation for the Levin-Olreatford, deviation. Concerning the Palmerston work the Minister submits the engineer's report, which says: Palmers ton station yard is one of the most important links in the North island railway system. From it's position as the central distributing-point for traffic from the Wellington, Wairarapa, Napier, Main Trunk, New Plymonth, and Foxton line's its importance will grow commensurate with the North Island traffic. The increase in through traffic requiring facilities for marshalling and sorting wagons for the various lines, and based on the increase in the North Island traffic, may be put at 100 per cent, in l 12} pears. The present yards are extremely congested, and quite inadequate for the business. On the pre-' sent site improvements of any consequence cannot he made. With the proposed new yard, adequate facilities for an increasing traffic can he given, and at the same time the cost 1 of working largely reduced. I estimate that cost at £390,000, and as a set-off; there will be the value of' Jand released at the present statio'lisite, say £150,000, At the Palmerston Railways Facilities Commission it' was estimated at £200,000. In addition an amount of £50,000 will he required for the deviation of the Napier line from Boundary Road to Whakaronga." It is proposed' to spend £100,000.0n the Palmerston deviation, job in the first year, another 1 £IOO,OOO in the second year; £95,000 in the third yeai\ and the final£os,'OOO in, the fourth year. Mr Cdat'es presents .altogether an. £8,000,000 programme, hut it in £o be extended •over' a period'of eight feat's, at the

rate "of a v million - a; year. He is* a. be : liever in using up-to-date machinery arjd appliances. It" is found-: that, notwifhstatiding the fart that a number'of modern mach'ineS have h'e'on' installed in the more important workshops during the last five years, much of the. present equipment, being slower than modern machines, i.s ineapable of turning out the quantity of work that could be dealt with by up-to-date machines. Therefore, £lo3,'(Soo'is included in the schedule for the purchase of machinery, and it is essential in the interests of efficency and economy that the expenditure . he authorised in order that new machines may he installed when the workshops are being electrified. It will be. necessary in the not-distant future, owing io the limited capacity of the existing workshops and the impossibility of enlarging th'e'iii to any material extent, to give serious consideration to the question of erecting a central workshop in each Island with up-to-date equipment for building new locomotives, repairing those in service, and for the construction of new cans and wagons, a portion of the present workshop's being retained for carrying out repair work only. It is estimated that a saving <»i' at least £BOOO per annum in overhead charges alone would be- effected by the establishment of one central work-shop in each Tsland, while the output of roll-ing-stock would he greatly increased and the. work's standari.sed to a far greater extent than is practiablo at the. present time; also, a reduction in the cost of output would he assured. It will thus he seen that there is courage as well as enterprise and initiative displayed by Mr Coatos, who is red-lettering 1024' in the history of railwayism in New Zealand.