MOTOR V. RAILWAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17133, 21 June 1927, Page 10

MOTOR V. RAILWAY.

CONFERENCE IN SYDNEY.

HOW NEW ZEALAND TACKLED IT,

The serious inroads made into railway goods traffic by privately-owned motor waggons will form one of the principal topics for discussion at the annual conference of Railway Commissioners in Sydney. Consideration is to be given by the conference to the best ways and means of recovering the lost goods traffic, and one of the ways which will undoubtedly be given careful analysis will be the conveyance of produce by motor transport in conjunction with the railways. Mr F. J. Jones, of New Zealand, should be able to contribute some interesting facts in this discussion for in New Zealand the motor transport problem has passed the stage of serious consideration. The Railway Department there has gone to the extent of buying out opposition ’bus companies, and making the timetables for the 'buses fit in with the running of the trains, says a Sydney paper. Commission payments to carriers who gain business for the railways was also introduced, and heart-to-heart talks with the members of the business community themselves, on the basis that the raihvays were as much their property as the property of the railway officials, with an invitation for suggestions and the hiring of wants, was found effective.