RAILWAY TRAFFIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19298, 10 April 1926, Page 10

RAILWAY TRAFFIC

The gross earn rags of the New Zealand raihvays in 1024-25 for the first time exceeded .£7,000,000; for the last financial year the receipts will be almost £8,000,000, if they do not actuaDy exceed that figure. Almost the whole of the increase in revenue shown by the accounts for 48 weeks of the financial year has been absorbed by the growth in expenditure, though the margin of £65,000 is a useful contribution to the reduction of the deficit. The advance in revenue is probably a more accurate measure of the department's success in meeting competition than the statement of traffic accompanying the accounts. The latter simply sets forth the numbers of passengers and the quantities of goods carried, and there has been a heavy decline in the former and only a small increase in the latter, it is not directly comparable with the substantially higher revenue. The apparent inconsistency probably has its explanation in a change in the character of railway traffic, shortdistance travellers and short-haul goods having been captured by competing motor transport. Ou tho bare figures of the department's returns, the position in regard to goods traffic is encouraging, even if it cannot be regarded as entirely satisfactory from the department's viewpoint. In the post-war period, there has been, with the exception of one year, a progressive increase in the volume carried, from six million tons in 1919-20 to over seven millions in 1924-25, and the year just completed shows a further advance. Passenger traffic has, however, gradually declined, so that in 48 weeks of 1925 : 26, the number of ordinary tickets issued was 10,795,000, as against 11,466,000 in the corresponding period oi' 1919-20; against this, season tickets increased from 356,700 to 544,000. Comparison with a similar period before the war indicates that the growth in goods traffic has been rather more rapid in recent years than it was then—an average of about 200,000 tons a year, as against 140,000 tons. That growth is actually more substantial than the bare figures indicate, in proportion to the change in tho character of the traffic. But in the six years from 1908 to 1911, the number of ordinary tickets issued increased from 9,750,000 to 13,350,000, whereas in the last six years there has been a retrogression. The competition of the motor-car, in private touring as well as in commercial services, has probably been the principal factor in arresting the normal growth of the passenger business, but a contributing cause has been the apathy of the department and its indifference to public requirements. Passenger traffic is naturally most sensitive to such conditions ; it is equally more responsive to efforts to improve the services and to accommodate them to public needs. 1