RAILWAYS RECORD

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16949, 13 May 1929, Page 7

RAILWAYS RECORD

LAST YEAR’S TRAFFIC GENERAL MANAGER’S SURVEY (Special to the Herald.) WELLINGTON, this day. Goods traffic on the New Zealand rail ways for the year ended March 31 beat the previous liighest record by 300,0iX,' tons. The actual total weight handled was 7,600,000 tons, while passenger journeys increased in the same period by 200,000. “Naturally this improvement in the quantity of business handled has nut come about by mere chance,” remarks the general manager, Mr. 11. 11. Sterling, in a message to the railway staff. Some of it has been due to the good season for primary products, but- much of the increase can be traced directly to the special methods adopted to create new traffic and attract previously existing business to the rail, but mast important of all in the building up of j business has been the spirited manner' in which the staff generally has responded to the opportunities afforded for making the service pleasing to clients, and their keenness in watching for chances to secure traffic.” HEAVY EXPENDITURE.

On the expenditure side, the general manager admits that the results are not so favorable, clue, he explains, mainly to the department taking over during the year many miles ol new track that have been unable at the outset of their operations to furnish a return equivalent to tho general average of lines previously opened. Expenses incidental throughout the Dominion to the change-over period from the new workshops'have also been heavy. Highly competitive conditions have made the securing of traffic move costly, and improved train services have added to transport expenditure. “We can butpalliate their effects, and the results as above indicated show that our efforts in this direction have not by any means been in vain,” ho says. A reminder that railway capital expenditure has to continue at a fairly heavy rate, is provided by the Prime Minister’s announcement after Saturday’s Cabinet meeting that the business included the approval of the expenditure of £30,000 for the reorganisation of Hillside railway workshops, £50.000 for general expenditure in connection with the workshops’ reorganisation scheme, and £60,000 for the new railway station and yard at Auckland.