MOTOR VEHICLES AFFECT RAILWAYS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19267, 2 January 1931, Page 4

MOTOR VEHICLES AFFECT RAILWAYS.

big freight service PROVIDED BY LORRIES WELLINGTON, December 31. The steady decline in railway receipts recently announced is due principally to a factor -which low prices for primary products will not explain away. Figures available from the Department of Transport show’ how substantial is the business conducted by road vehicles in competition against the rail. The private car, giving tremendously improved travel facilities, has developed the “ travel habit,” but the gain has not gone to the railways, because there is a car to every ten persons in New Zealand to day, compared with one to every seventeen in the vear 1925. Motor trucks in 1925 were estimated to be giving a freight service equal to 48 million ton miles per annum. The same enumeration to-dav places the ton-mile factor at over 200 million miles. Service cars on the long-distance routes are not serious competitors of the rail on a price basis, but their elasticity in providing convenient transport has given them the advantage. Motor transport services on defined routes in the North Island emplov 776 cars, while those of the South Island utilise 308 cars.