Railway Rush

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 532, 8 December 1928, Page 7

Railway Rush

Thousands of Tons of Goods Moved Daily ACTIVITY IN NEW SHEDS Thousands of tons of goods are leaving Auckland every day by rail. This is the busiest season of the year for the railways, and almost every available wagon is brought into use. Ships are arriving from overseas filled with merchandise and huge quantities of produce from the country are being brought to the city and the wharves. Some idea of the busy state of the railways can be gained from the fact that on Wednesday over 400 trucks and wagons went out from the Auckland yards. Wool, grain, butter and cheese and large quantities of phosphates, coal and timber have been moved during the past fortnight to ani} from Auckland. Other centres are demanding their quota of trucks at the same time, and the distribution of transport must be made to meet the demands of everyone. The new railway goods shed is satisfactorily meeting the ever-growing demand for transport, even though the officials are handicapped to a certain extent by the lack of cranes, which will not be installed during the Christmas holidays. The new cranes for the shed have arrived, but to install them at the present time would be to disorganise the present arrangements. It is the peak period which always comes before Christmas. MAKING THINGS EASIER Merchants consigning goods from Auckland sometimes are rather late in sending their carriers to the shed. This means a last-minute rush. For instance on Tuesday 91 carriers carts and vehicles arrived in the shed between 4 and 4.30 o’clock in the afternoon. This was at the rate of three a minute. On Wednesday, at the same hour, 106 carts and wagons arrived. Such a rush leads to congestion ar.d taxes to the utmost the loading capacity of the shed, as those goods have to be loaded on to trucks and wagons ; to go South the same night. > Merchants state that, although the | bulk of their consignments are made up early in the day they usually have i to wait until the last minute for a few : packages. The railway officials reply I that the goods could be sent down to 1 the shed early, and the packages could | be handled later on without difficulty. ! The following figures, in tons, give I some indication of the enormous amount of goods leaving Auckland [ daily:—Loaded Loaded in Shed, on Wharf Monday 458 1,050 Tuesday .. .. •• 104 1,377 Wednesday . - .. 931 1,477 On Wednesday, 2,158 consignments, to all parts of the North Island, ,were received at the goods shed. Notwithstanding this rush of traffic the shed was all clear at 7.15 o’clock In the evening. Had the new shed not been in operation the men would not have been clear until 8.30 o’clock under the old conditions. Even with such a demand for transport facilities the full capacity of the sheds has not been taxed. INCREASE IN REVENUE It is expected that this year's figures will easily exceed those of last yea.” To date there has been a considerable increase in tonnage, and the final figures for Auckland will show "hat transport by rail is still the most satisfactory. An indication in the growth of the goods sent out from the four principal stations in New Zealand, compared

with 1919, can b© grained from Uie following figures; 1919 1928 Tons. Tons. Auckland . . 182,237 345,258 Wellington . . 187,293 189,951 Christchurch . . 72,431 96,011 Dunedin 95,900 129,011 Last year the outward revenue for these four centres was as follows: Auckland, £352,685; Wellington, £238,677; Christchurch, £100,131; Dunedin, £162,996. Auckland easily leads the rest of the Dominion, and with her increase in shipping and rail facilities and the rapid growth of the province she will soon be exceeding the whole of the rest of New Zealand.