The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1926. RAILWAY IMPROVEMENT

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12391, 10 March 1926, Page 6

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10, 1926. RAILWAY IMPROVEMENT

The Railway Board is experimenting with the object of railway improvement. Its idea is to use motor or other transport to help the backward railways, which represent a drain instead of a profit to the general railway system. This is not the first attempt at this sort of thing, for the old management of twenty years ago established regular experimenting with a view to this betterment. This must be mentioned in justice to the old management. We need not inquire into the reasons why that old experimenting did not make a success striking enough to cause trumpets to blare—whether, for example, the powers in control were too conservative in their ideas to give a fair chance to new notions. The main thing to consider now is the fact that the management of today—the "Railway Board—is carrying on the experiments for improvements on a comprehensive scale, with apparently some good hope of success. The board has the advantage of the motor-’bus system, which, for many of the days of the old management did not exist, and has been brought to'good, practical working condition only in recent years. The board is very properly using the motor-’bus as the pivot of its efforts for improvement. Its first step is to establish exactly how much more profitable and how much less expensive the ’bus system can be in districts where branch railways are a draw on the public exchequer. It is easy to imagine places where ’buses, running regularly and frequently with a capacity of 25 to 30 passengers, would run the one or two-day trains off the line. Instead of stopping at the imagination, the board is scheming to supply the ’buses. If there is any “running off” to be done, the department will do that itself, and at the same time improve the public service, saving costs into the bargain. It may even be possible for the railway ’buses to cooperate with private ’buses in the matter. This sort of thing is possible, because the Railway Board is a non-political body, forbidden to consider, politics in any way, whereas in the old days the railways, and especially the branch railways, were the happy hunting-ground of log-rolling politicians who steadily voted for each other’s lines without giving a thought to the general interest. These politicians were a curse to the country, which supported them in braggart comfort by losses of railway revenue made good by the unfortunate taxpayers, who got nothing whatever in return.

That state of things having passed away, or nearly so, the road to imorovement is no longer blocked. The Railway Board car give its whole attention to the merits of every case before it, and every policy, without being hampered by respect for the unrespectable.

This freedom the board is utilising by considering not only motor-’buses, but every kind of vehicle that can be made profitable in railway co-operation. We trust its labours will be widely and substantially fruitful.