CROSSING DANGERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 230, 27 August 1935, Page 9

CROSSING DANGERS.

PLANS FOR ELIMINATION. NATIONAL PROGRAMME. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Aug. 26. During the next three years the Government proposes to spend £360,000 in eliminating railway level crossings throughout the Dominion. The programme mapped out provides for the allocation of £120,000 each year for this purpose. This announcement was made to-night by the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) in a piesessional address at Rangiora.

Mr Forbes stated that discussions had recently been taking place between the Main Highways Board, the Unemployment Board, and the Railway Department, and careful consideration had been given to the matter from the points of view of the road user and the rail user in relation to the amount of risk involved in each case, and also from the point of view of the Unemployment Board, which was desirous of finding full-time employment of a national character for certain classes of the unemployed. Mr Forbes said that, while the total number of accidents in the running of the railways was not excessive when the total annual mileage covered by goods and passenger trains was taken into account, accidents at level crossings formed a rather large proportion of such happenings, and it was thought desirable and the time opportune to minimise these risks as far as possible. “The programme proposed for the next three years is to cost £120,000 per annum, a total of £300,000,” he said, “and an agreement has been reached as to the allocation of cost between the Main Highways Board, the Unemployment Board, and the Railway Department, together with, of course, such assistance as will he forthcoming from local bodies. “Investigations have been carried out jointly by Railway and Public Works Department engineers at 50 of the most important level crossings in the Dominion, and from these a selection will be made for the programme for the current year. Elimination will be effected in some instances by overbridge, in some by subway, in others by highway deviation, and in a few cases a small relocation of the railway may offer the cheapest and best solution.” Mr Forbes said he felt sure that the desire on the part of the Government to eliminate as far as possible the risks of accidents at these crossings would be appreciated by the public generally, and more particularly by road users. It would also find useful work for a number of the unemployed.