LUXURY LAND LINER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27211, 14 October 1949, Page 6

LUXURY LAND LINER

APPEAL AGAINST' GRANTING OF LICENCE

SERVICE HELD UNNECESSARY PA INVERCARGILL, Oct. 13. The appeal of the Railways Department against the decision of the No. 3 Transport Licensing Authority granting a licence to V. L. Neate to operate a luxury land liner between Christchurch and Invercargill has been allowed by the Transport Appeal Authority (Judge K. G. Archer). Neate was granted a licence by No. 3 Authority in May. In his decision the Transport Authority says the application which led to the appeal was one of four heard together seeking passenger service licences over the route Christchurch to Invercargill. The proposals of the applicants differed in detail, but each propbsed to supplement the existing facilities for travel by express and road service, and they joined in submitting that such a service was necessary or desirable in the public interest. No. 3 Authority had granted a licence to Neate for three trips a week each way, with certain restrictions on the picking up and setting down of passengers. i “ The substantial issue is whether the service proposed is necessary or desirable in the public interest,” the judgment stated. “ The department claimed that its rail and road services were reasonably adequate, and that if not it should be granted the opportunity of rendering them adequate. The case for the applicants was that the existing services were totally inadequate and that, in the absence of statutory preference in favour of the department, a private operator should be permitted to establish a through road service. “In view of the emphasis laid by almost every witness - upon the inadequacy of the thrice-weekly rail service, I must consider the effect of the new ‘limited express’ service instituted by the Railways Department since the hearing but before this appeal, which reinstates the daily service and substantially remedies the complaint of isolation. I am satisfied that the railway services now being operated by the department are adequate for the reasonable needs of the Southland district, and that, accordingly, the necessity of a road service cannot be maintained.”