SUBURBAN RAILWAYS

New Zealand Times, Volume LIII, Issue 12393, 12 March 1926, Page 6

SUBURBAN RAILWAYS

ELECTRIFICATION PROPOSALS. BEFOR’e THE EXPERTS. Proposals for the electrification -of the suburban lines running out from Wellington, Auckland, and Dunedin are now being examined by Government experts. In their report on the electrification of certain portions of the New Zealand railways system, Messrs Merz and McLennan, the London engineers who were consulted on the mallet', iriehtion the cost of electrifying the' , £4w!a Flat tunnels through which the - deviated Main Trunk railway will run from Wellington. The Prime Minister and Minister for Public Works (the Right Hon. J. G. Coates) stated yesterday that the report contained general conclusions, and thq/jfp.artmental experts were now trying to jvork out independently the basis of -computation arrived at by Messrs Mint’and McLennan. Until this was--done it was not proposed to release'' fqt publication those portions of the report relating to Wellington. Auckland; and Dunedin. That had been thfe procedure followed in regard to the Lyttelton tunnel section of the report, ;whicli had been examined by tho departmental experts first, as the nosition with reference to the Lyttelton tun-riel and the lav-out 'of the Christchurch yards was deemed to be a matter of prime urgency. Mr Coates made it clear that it would be unwise and unbusinesslike merely to accept a report with-it first attempting to e-ramine hv independent means the soundness of the conclusions and estimates of rest, captained in it.