Railways The Big Freight Mover 1979

Railways The Big Freight Mover

 

Railways The Big Freight Mover

In December 1979, NZR was a Government Department and still had a statutory monopoly on most freight movements beyond 150km (unless a location was more distant from a railhead), but with the limit increased from 40 miles to 150km only just over a year before, NZR wanted to convince businesses and the public that its role as primary freight mover was justified. It highlighted the move to palletised and containerised freight, noting that NZR became a shareholder in a national pool of pallets in 1973.  It also notes the importance of what it calls the "model" freight terminal at Southdown in Auckland.

Statistics it cites include:

• 12 million tonnes of goods per annum moved (Kiwirail today reports it moves around 19 million tonnes)
• Almost 90% of containers moved to and from ports are by rail (unlikely to be that share today).

Logs, containers, flour, cars and general freight are depicted, with a narrative about how innovative NZR was. It wasn't enough to save NZR from being corporatised in 1982 and losing its statutory monopoly on long haul freight in 1983.