Railways Extra Document 1

UNIFORM GAUGE FOR AUSTRALIA

Sir – I have the honor to draw your attention to the subject of an uniform gauge for Australia and to the previous communications I have forwarded on the subject.

The question becomes a much more costly and difficult one the longer it is postponed, and I would respectfully urge, if the whole question cannot be dealt with at the present time, that steps should be taken to induce the Victorian Government to agree to alter the line running from Albury to Melbourne, with its connecting branches, to the 4ft. 8in. [sic] gauge, and so enable the traffic to be passed between Sydney and Melbourne without change.

In making this suggestion, I am aware that I am practically assuming that the gauge of the future should be the gauge already adopted as the standard of the world, as quite 90 per cent. of the railways of the world are now 4ft. 8½in.

As a question of cost, too, it will be much cheaper to adopt the 4ft. 8 ½in. gauge than the Victorian gauge of 5ft. 3in., as no works would require widening; whereas if the 5ft. 3in. gauge were adopted the cost of altering stations like Sydney, the suburban lines, &c., would be exceedingly great. The axles of the rolling-stock would in nearly all cases be available for the 4ft. 8½in. gauge, whereas if the 5ft. 3in. gauge were adopted all would have to be abandoned. The permanent way change would also be cheapened and simplified by adopting the narrower gauge.

One of the strongest arguments I have heard advanced by those in favor of the retention of the 5ft. 3in. as the standard has been that more powerful locomotives can be put upon that gauge than on the 4ft. 8½in. road. I attach no importance to this point now, as the improvements in locomotives of late years have been so great that for the grades upon Victorian and South Australian lines engines of the power running in New South Wales will haul trains of as great length as it would be desirable to place behind a locomotive.

Victoria, too, has been devoting much thought of recent years to the question of how to cheapen the cost of construction, and the adoption of a somewhat narrower gauge than at present in use would afford an opportunity of doing something in this direction.

I would suggest for the consideration of the Government that the cost of this change should be borne by the two colonies affected in equal proportions, and when, later on, the whole question as affecting all the colonies is dealt with the question could be reopened and the expenditure readjusted on the principle decided upon for the larger expenditure.

I attach a map of the Victorian railways and have marked thereon in red the lines suggested to be altered to the 4ft. 8½in. gauge. If the two Governments are favorably disposed to consider the matter a rough estimate of the cost of carrying out the scheme could be speedily prepared and laid before you.

E. M. G. EDDY.
[Chief Commissioner for Railways, New South Wales]

Excerpt from FEDERAL CONVENTION, 1897 (RETURN to the ORDER of the CONVENTION (March 24th, 1897), LAID on the TABLE by the CLERK and ORDERED to be PRINTED, April 2nd 1897.) [Copy of letter dated January 4th, 1896, from the Chief Commissioner for Railways to the Honorable G. H. Reid, M.P., Premier and Minister for Railways.], SLV, MS 10037, MSB 130.