THE RAILWAY CUT

Southland Times, Issue 19295, 5 August 1921, Page 5

THE RAILWAY CUT

SOME SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES EFFECT UPON INDUSTRY AND EDUCATION (Special to the Times.) WELLINGTON, August 4. The severe reduction in railway services announced yesterday has caused a great deal of discussion, and communications that have reached Wellington already indicate that in the South Island particularly there is some dismay. The services on very many of the southern branch lines have been reduced to three days a week, and the loss of daily trains will inflict much inconvenience on the people of the districts affected, particularly in connection wnth the carriage of school children and perishable produce, such as milk.

There appears to be a disposition to recognise, however, that the condition of railway finances as shown in recent official statistics has made the reduction unavoidable. The Railway Department cannot continue to run scores of trains weekly at a lose.

The details of the amended time tables will be announced this week. The officers of the Department have tried within the limits of the reduced services to suit the requirements of the districts. The amended time table is to operate until the end of November unless increases of traffic in the meantime justify additional trains, but it should not be assumed that the present services will be resumed after November in all cases. Some of the branch lines have been operated at a loss for a long time, and it has been apparent that their traffic, regarded from a business point of view, did not justify daily services. Some of the trains now being cancelled are not likely to be resumed until the ditericte can provide more passengers and larger quantities of goods. It will not be the policy of the Railway Department in the future, as it has not been in the past, to insist that every section of line shall pay its own way, but the Government, which directs the policy of the Department, has had to face the fact that unless a heavy annual contribution was to be made from the Consolidated Fund for the maintenance of the railway services a limit must be get to the losses on the unprofitable sections.

Mention has been made of the carriage of milk and other perishable produce. The reductions that have been announced will not affect many dairymen during the winter months, and there seems to be no reason why fruitgrowers should not adjust their arrangements when their season comes to triweekly railway services. It may be noted that this class of traffic is not at all profitable to the Railway Department. Milk is carried on the railways at very cheap rates, dating from the days when the dairy industry needed much encouragement from the Government. Fish and fruit are also carried at unprofitable rates which represent special concessions to producers and consumers. No proposal for increasing the rates is being put forward at present, but the existence of such concessions has a bearing upon the ability of the Department to carry losses at other points. The withdrawal of daily trains will be a serious business for school children in some cases. Many children are carried by train to school,, particularly to secondary and technical schools. It may be mentioned in passing that from a purely business standpoint this is very unprofitable traffic, since the children are carried at merely nominal rates.

Referring to this point to-day, the Minister of Railways said that the requirements of the school children had been very fully considered by the Government before the reduction in the services were finally approved. The Department was doing its best to reduce the interference with education to a minimum. There were cases where the withdrawal of trains used by children attending schools could not be avoided, but he was satisfied that the least possible inconvenience was being inflicted upon the young people. The saving to be effected, up to the end of November by the reduction of services is estimated at £lO,OOO. or at the rate of roughly £35,000 a year. The figures are not exact, since some of the factors are uncertain. Recent returns show that traffic is still declining, and the Department cannot know when the decline will be checked. Then the reduction of services will involve some loss of revenue, though probably not very much, since the traffic will tend to accommodate itself to the new timetable. It is not anticipated that the amended time table will involve the reduction of the railway staff. It will involve some reduction in the earnings of railway men, since the amount of overtime worked on many lines will be very much reduced. Some transfers of railwaymen may become necessary, but the Department does not anticipate that many adjustments of this nature will be required. The savings to be made will consist very largely of reduced consumption of coal and stores, and reduced wear and tear. Reduced train mileage will mean reduced maintenance charges and other savings.