Based on Louise Doran’s letter I must believe in the tooth fairy but I suspect I am not the only one.
It would be similar to believing it is cheaper to rebuild the railway compared to building a rail trail or using a statistic like ‘living within 5 kms of the railway line means you are close enough to a railway station to make it viable’.
One of the major ‘dubious benefits’ of the rail trail is school children being able to ride safely to school. Many of the schools in our region lie within 100 metres of the rail corridor, including Lismore South Public, Casino and Richmond River high schools.
This provides a safer environment for children to ride to school or just to have fun on their bikes. Flow on benefits would include increased fitness in our children and fewer cars on the road at peak times.
The issue I think we would all agree on is that the government has done nothing for public transport in the region. After deciding the train was not a viable option there was no plan B. They should be investigating greener bus options such as solar powered buses being used in South Australia.
P.S. I do not ride a bicycle.
Greg Byrnes, Lennox Head
Greg, Do you agree with extra buses on our traffic gridlocked roads? You would know of the many vehicle crashes on these roads, including the freeway. People having to endure the greuling, labourious countrylink bus connection to the Casino railway station is disgusting & a lack of responsibility by the Coalition Gov. Said to me, many National voters/workers/supporters have lost trust in their MPs. The MPs support ripping the rail lines up & people walking, bike riding, horse riding etc over the arsenic laden train line.
We need bike tracks for sure but not on our rail corridor. Now, just think, people drive to Tweed Heads to embark on their plane. Yet, that claytons rail study says trains cannot do the same; that is, shuttle buses which happens now to airports!
The Gold Coast Motorail cost $11million per year to operate. It’s average annual return was $22.5million.It was patronized strongly by the people of the Northern Rivers as it was a daylight service 7 days a wk. Source: Neale Battersby. Also see: “YOU BE THE JUDGE” . Jillian Spring