Mr. Baker Whiteasked the Minister of Transport what steps have been taken during the past four months to complete and bring into service partially completed mineral wagons recently standing at Martin Mill and Gatwick, and to repair box wagons standing on the Maldon West branch line.
§ Mr. Barnes[pursuant to his reply (OFFICIAL REPORT, 28th July, 1947; Vol. 441, Col. 1)], supplied the following statement
In view of the difficulty experienced by contractors in obtaining delivery of steel plate, arrangements were made for fabricated doors to be manufactured at the railway works at Ashford. This has enabled 50 of the wagons stabled at Martin Mill to be completed. Manufacturers are now producing doors at the rate of 40 sets a week and the Southern Railway Company are helping to assemble them; the 92 wagons stabled at Gatwick have been taken into the works and 75 of them have been completed and released to traffic. The rest are being dealt with as quickly as possible. With regard to the wagons on the Maldon West branch line there is at present insufficient capacity in depots to store all wagons awaiting repair, and this branch is used to stable crippled wagons pending repair.