 It was soon realised after the opening of the Nelson – Foxhill section that the inconvenience of transferring goods traffic from trains to drays to transfer it to the port at Nelson station was sufficient enough for many merchants in Nelson and surrounding areas to avoid the railway altogether and to ship their goods directly to the port by road.This loss of freight traffic from the railways gave sufficient motivation to the New Zealand Railways for them to make the port section the next to be added to the line.On an inquiry made on 1 June in parliament, it was made known that planning for the port section was in progress, but returns from the railway could not justify any further extension of the line to the south at that time.