THE COASTAL RAILWAY ROUTE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 246, 16 October 1937, Page 8

THE COASTAL RAILWAY ROUTE

sir, —.viucn lias neen said ol I lit many advantages of the coastal route over the present route and the deviation which is under construction at present. I wonder if anyone has stopped to consider what would happen to the East Town Railway Workshops if the coastal route eventually became a reality. Of course it would still be a necessity to have a branch lire runnimteAramoho, as many thousands ot t Ys of rock phosphate and fertiliser are handled each year over this section of the railway in addition to casein and general goods, but would the Railway Department go to the trouble of maintaining the obsolete Aramoho Railwav Bridge and that section of track consisting of the triangle and route to the workshops? This would probably prove a very uneconomical proposition, besides being very inconvenient. On the other hand, if the department deemed it necessary to close the workshops it is quite probable that some scheme would be devised whereby all repairs, manufacture of tarpaulins, etc., for this section would be carried out at the Hutt workshops. thereby involving a considerable loss to Wanganui.—l am, etc., "ANTI-COASTAL.'' Sir—Again I beg a little space in your newspaper to express the hope that the worthy advocates of the coastal railway route, being assured of wide support, will fight with full confidence for what is the just claim long neglected, of the Wanganlr coastal, and Taranaki districts. ' It is now widely known of the railway route from Turakina through Wanganui city to Maxwell, not only that it is practicable, but also that it was the originally intended route, long ago neglected in favour of a much longer route: this needlessly longer route throughout a half century is now realised to have wasted enormous time and money in railway tr«\el and transport, both as between Taranaki and Wellington and also as between Wanganui and some important parts of its rightful district, especially on the Rangitikci side. For the future progress .of Wanganui city it is very important to change from the Dcnlair railway route, which is too long by at least seven needless miles, and to secure, in full reparation, the coastal route to Turakina so as to have fair railway communication with the Marton Junction gateway of the lower Main Trunk district, which, by geographic nearness, is rightly of the Wanganui district. For the future benefit of the travel-ML ling public and also of the Railways’ Department, the Turakina to Maxwell route, by its shortening and its better grades and curves, would make the »Vanganui-Taranaki railway a splendid alternative route between Auckland and Wellington, and only about forty miles longer than the Main Trunk route.—l am., etc. “WAINGONGORO.”