The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 4, Issue 1 (May 1, 1929)
General Manager's Message
General Manager's Message
The year's revenue reviewed.
Unlike most railways, we are able this year to show an actual increase in both the number of passengers carried by our services and the tonnage of goods conveyed. The increase in operating revenue, amounting to £181,486, is sufficiently substantial to indicate genuine progress in the development of traffic during the past twelve months. I anticipate that when the figures for subsidiary services are available, the revenue increase will be found to be considerably higher.
Special methods to induce traffic.
The total number of passenger journeys made by train was over two hundred thousand more than last year, and the tonnage of goods and livestock was 7,600,000 tons, or three hundred thousand tons more than the railways have ever previously carried in one year.
Naturally, this improvement in the quantity of business handled has not come about by mere chance. Some has been due to the good season for primary products, but much of the increase can be traced directly to the special methods adopted to create new traffic and attract previously existing business to the rail. Although the general tariff has been maintained without material alteration, special use has been made of its cheap rate provisions in the arrangement of excursions of various kinds, and where the circumstances warranted variation from the standard freight rates to serve important lines of goods, the necessary changes have been made.
But most important of all in building up business has been the spirited manner in which the staff generally have responded to the opportunities afforded for making the service pleasing to clients and their keenness in watching for chances to secure traffic.
Many improvements.
During the year many improvements have been introduced such as the provision of Night Expresses in the South Island, additional passenger trains in the Taranaki and Hawke's Bay Districts, and luggage checking from and to the home at the principal centres. The expansion of road services, while to some extent duplicating rail facilities, has enabled certain economies to be effected in train operating, while helping to increase the total number of passengers carried by the Railway Department. The benefit obtained from widening the scope of our low rate passenger fares has been two-fold. Although more passengers have had to be carried to secure an equivalent return of revenue, the increase in numbers has been sufficient not only to supply this, but also to counteract largely the general tendency in recent years towards a falling passenger revenue.
The further advantage is that our action in this direction has enabled us to give a still greater measure of service to the community.
We have received many appreciative references—both written and verbal—to this aspect of our efforts. These show that we have improved the prestige of our system—a position that must have a stimulating effect on our business generally.
Expenditure.
The general results on this count are not so favourable, due mainly to the Department taking over, during the year, many miles of new track that have been unable, at the outset of their operations, to furnish a return equivalent to the general average of the lines previously operated. Expenses incidental throughout the Dominion to the change-over period from the old to the new workshops have also been heavy; highly competitive conditions have made the securing of traffic more costly, and improved train services have added to transport expenditure. These are factors that are not to be denied. We can but palliate their effects, and the results as above indicated show that our efforts in this direction have not, by any means, been in vain.