ELECTRIFICATION OF RAILWAYS IN NEW ZEALAND

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 September 1950, Page 3

ELECTRIFICATION OF RAILWAYS IN NEW ZEALAND

WELLINGTON, Sept. 29 (P.A.).— , The Government had decided to ob- ’ tain the advice of two eminent Swedish engineers on the question of . the electrification of the main trunk . line, and as soon as that advice was received, a start with the electrification of the Auckland suburban railways would be made without delay. ■ This was stated this evening by the Minister of Works and Railways (Mr W. S. Goosman), when he released the Halcrow Thomas report dealing with transport and associated pro-j blems of Auckland. I Mr Goosman said the report contained a considerable amount of technical data, and embodied very far-reaching recommendations, involving the expenditure of a huge sum of money. “I am happy to announce that the Government is convinced that the electrification of the Auckland Suburban railway system, as recommended in the report, is a project which should be put in hand as soon as reasonably possible,” said Mr Goosman. “It can be taken, therefore, that this becomes the official Government policy.” One difficulty which confronted the Government was that if, as seemed likely, it should decide to electrify the whole North Island main trunk system, an important decision would be involved on whether the system should be operated by D.C. or A.C. current. ‘ He was advised the D.C. system would be preferable, but if the whole main trunk system were to be included, then it would probably be found better to adopt A.C. For obvious reasons it would not be desirable to have D.C. for Auckland and A.C. for the main trunk, hence the Government’s decision to obtain the advice of the Swedish engineers on the matter. “The Government will take more!

time to consider the rest of the report, as it contains recommendations which need to be very carefully weighed,” said Mr Goosman.