Eighteen Months Before New Railcars Will Arrive For Central Otago Line

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26963, 24 December 1948, Page 6

Eighteen Months Before New Railcars Will Arrive For Central Otago Line

Special Correspondent

WELLINGTON, Dec. 23

The plan was to place railcars on the Central Otago line and on other lines where they could be used to the best advantage, but it would be at least 18 months before the new railcars for this purpose could arrive from Britain, said the General Manager of Railways, Mr F. W. Aickin, in a statement to the Daily Times to-day. »

Mr Aickin said: “In a statement-I made a couple of months ago I referred to the expected arrival early in 1949 of a number of electric multiple unit coaches, and owing to a confusion of terms the impression went abroad that the new Diesel electric railcars were arriving in 1949. The coaches to which I was referring are advance, deliveries of electric multiple-unit stock for the Wellington suburban lines. The Central Otago trials with an engineless railcar gave an impetus to the story that the arrival of the new Diesel electric railcars was imminent.

“ The story about the railcar tests on the Central Otago line is that we towed an old standard type railcar over the track to test the tunnels and structures for clearances in order to determine whether the standard design we had planned for the new cars would suit every part of New Zealand, also for the purpose of securing other data with respect to that particular section of railway. It is of interest that two of the tunnels on the route presented clearance difficulties, but this is a matter that can be quite simply overcome.

“ Twenty-five modern type Diesel electric railcars are on order, and the Minister of Railways has already indicated that some of the cars will be used on the Central Otago line. The lines on which the remaining railcars will operate have not yet been decided upon, but it is obvious, even at this date, that when the new cars do arrive some redistribution of the existing railcar stock will require to be made. These cars, however, cannot be delivered for at least 18 months yet owing to manufacturing space in England being taken up with higher priority contract work, including 15 Diesel electric shunting engines which we have on order, seven electric locomotives, and the electric mtiltiple-unit stock already mentioned. “ When delivery of the railcars is in sight, a point-to-point analysis -of the passenger traffic on the various routes will be made in order that the cars may be placed „to the best advantage. We do not want to use more than two coupled cars (160 seats) on any run if we can avoid it, and in some cases 160 seats will probably be insufficient. The point-to-point analysis to which I have referred may indicate that the loading on certain runs should be limited to traffic between certain points, and that a single car of perhaps smaller capacity should be run on a different time table to cope' with intermediate traffic in order to allow longdistance passengers to travel in comfort without overcrowding. There is plenty of time yet, however, to make a close analysis of the overall and the point-to-point traffic on the various routes, after which arrangements will be made to distribute the cars to the best public advantage.”