89.93% compared with 86.94% in the previous year. The higher availability was achieved by careful planned control of work schedules to cope with the additional requirements for the increased goods traffic for the latter part of the year.
44. The maintenance cost of the diesel locomotives was $1.037 per km. com- pared with $0.853 per km. in the previous year due to the higher expenditure incurred on the increased cost of spare parts and labour due to world-wide inflation.
45. Carriage and Wagons. The availability factor of the carriages was 84.76% compared with 84.40% in the previous year.
46. The maintenance cost per passenger coach kilometre was $0.365 compared with $0.337 in the previous year which again is mainly due to inflation.
47. Electrical Work. In order to improve lighting conditions at goods yards at Kowloon, Blackhead, Mongkok and Lo Wu, additional mercury lamps were installed. A public address system was installed at Tai Po Kau Station.
48.
Work Done for other Government Departments. A considerable amount of work was completed for other Government Departments including the manufacture of 61 iron and 25 aluminium castings, and 50 steel guide rails.
49. Statistics. The average consumption of diesel oil was 3.40 kg. per engine km. compared with 3.24 kg. per engine km. in the previous year. The increase was due to heavier train loads during the year. The total average cost of maintenance and oil consumption per locomotive kilometre was $1.88 compared with $1.58 in the previous year. Statistical statements relating to the analysis of train and locomotive running, fuel oil running expenses, consumption of lubricants, the cost of repairs to locomotives, carriages and wagons will be found in Appendices VIII to XI while the classification of rolling stock is at Appendices XII to XV.
WAY & STRUCTURES
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50. Maintenance. The staff situation improved toward the end of the year, and there was no difficulty in recruiting lower grade staff because of under- -mployment in the private sector.
51. Consideration was being given to mechanisation of track maintenance to cope with the anticipated expansion of railway activities.
52. Corrosive discharge from the cold storage wagons of the Chinese Section remained a matter of concern for the maintenance staff. As an experiment, galvanized single shank elastic rail spikes were used at University Station to test their durability.
53. The manufacturer of rails agreed to add a small percentage of copper to a batch of steel rails. These would be used for testing whether the copper additive could increase the corrosive resistance of rails.
54. Track. The following works were carried out during the year:
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