WORK ON RAILWAYS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 248, 17 September 1936, Page 11

WORK ON RAILWAYS

RESUMED OPERATIONS. BIG SUM VOTED. A total of £654,550 for the resumed construction of railway lines on which work had been abandoned is set down in the Public Works Estimates for the year ending March 31, 1937. Last financial year only £BOBB was spent on these lines. In addition, £715,400 is provided for improvements to and new facilities for open lines.

The work on the East Coast line from Gisborne to Napier requires £163,000, for the Gishorne-Waikokopu section, the section from Waikokopu to Wairoa £22,500, and the section from Wairoa to Putorino, £100,500. In addition, earthquake and flood damage restoration between Putorino and Napier will absorb £48,000. The grand total needed for the East Coast line until March 31, 1937. is therefore £334.000.

Next in magnitude is the South Island Main Trunk work, the Whara-nui-Parnnssius section involving an expenditure of £190,000 to March 31, 1937.

The resumed work on the West portInangahua line will require £IOO,OOO this year. Smaller items include £BSOO for land claims, pits and quarries and small liabilities for losses on goods in transit. The sum of £SO is provided for surveys of new lines. For permanent way material an amount of £22,000 is required. Improvements to existing railway facilities and additions to open lines will cost £715,400 during the remainder of the current year. For Wellington’s new station and yard the allocation to the end of next March is £243.000 and for finishing the Tawa Flat deviation £12,000 is to be appropriated.

The electrification of the WellingtonJohnsonville line will need £47,000 of the £90,000 the work will finally entail. The electrification of the Welling-ton-Paekakariki section will require £193,525.

A new station and yard facilities at Christchurch, ultimately to cost £70,000. is to be voted £50,000 until the end of March as a start.

The easement of grades on existing railway lines and miscellaneous improvements will involve £162,475. Provision of garage and terminal facilities for railway road motor services will require an expenditure of £30,000.