RAILWAY RETURNS.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1933, Page 6

RAILWAY RETURNS.

The railway returns for the second fourweekly period of the present financial year are fairly satisfactory. They represent an increase in net revenue of £951 as compared with the corresponding period last year, and so far as it goes the result will be welcomed. What is not so satisfactory is that the decline in revenue has not yet been arrested. It appears to be slightly less than for the corresponding period in 1932, while the expenditure lias also been reduced. The figures seem to indicate that reduction in expenditure is reaching its limit unless further drastic curtailment of services is made, and the Railways Board has stated quite definitely that unless the railways receive more support such curtailment would be inevitable. The figures for the period April 1 to May 27 show an increase in the net revenue of £7928, though the revenue fell from £1007,766 last year io £976,561 in this year. The improvement in the net earnings was entirely due to the reduced expenditure, and while this is a tribute to the Railways Board’s non-political control of the railway services it is obvious that there must be a limit to such savings unless services are also reduced. It is already costing the general taxpayer a good deal to make up the loss caused through failure of the railways to earn interest upon their capital cost. It is a fact which cannot be emphasised too frequently, for only the support of the public will enable the railways to pay their way again. The re-organisa-tion of road and railway transport services is not a matter which can be hurried. Both classes of transport have their place in the economic structure of the Dominion; both are endeavouring to serve the public well. In the long run it will pay both of them to eliminate uneconomic competition and substitute co-operation for overlapping and redundant services. Meanwhile the Railways Board is concentrating upon reducing costs of operation wherever possible, and the policy is certainly meeting with some success.