RAIL CAR SERVICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 13

RAIL CAR SERVICES

No doubt the General Manager of Railways very _ correctly interpreted the popular sentiment when he stated recently that. the present demand is for fast, light, comfortable services at frequent intervals rather than for trains of large capacity, running infrequently and probably, to a large section of - the public, at inconvenient times. The deputation from the Otago Expansion League and various suburban - boroughs which placed before the Railways Board this week a request that rail ears should be used between Dunedin and Port Chalmers and Dunedin and Mosgiel made a strong point of the desirability of frequent passenger services on these routes, . and pertinently emphasised their suitability for the introduction of an innovation of the kind. Doubtless the advent of the petrol-driven rail car opens up new possibilities in railway travel, but the stage of definite , assurance on that point has hardly yet been, reached in New Zealand. The Railways ■ Board has apparently had reason to be very well satisfied with its experience of the operation of the rail car which it has been using for inspection purposes, and this and its investigation of the operation of rail cars in other countries have encouraged it to give these petrol passenger units, as they are termed, a trial on two sections of line in the North Island. It has ordered eleven cars for the purpose. But these services, as Sir James Gunson, deputy chairman of the Railways Board, explained to the deputation, are to be regarded as experimental. The use of rail car units over sections of line to which they are adaptable is a modern development. An earlier experiment of the kind in this Dominion was not attended with satisfactory results, but it may be supposed that the Railways Board is convinced that it can now introduce the rail car with considerable confidence. In other countries petrol rail units are operated with success, and in Queensland they are in service in various parts of the State and have given satisfaction to the travelling public, which has appreciated the quick, clean and comfortable transit provided. The experience of the Railways Board in New Zealand in the operation of rail car services on the Wellington-Rimu-taka-Palmerston North and the Wel-lington-New Plymouth routes will be watched with much interest. .The assurance has been given that if the Board’s expectations are realised, and it decides to extend the rail car operations, the Dunedin sections will receive early consideration. In the meantime, however, it is to be recognised that this new development in transport is only at the experimental stage.