The Hinterland Collective, a tourism body representing operators throughout the Byron hinterland, supports the concept of a multi-use rail trail in as far as it does not diminish the opportunity for a rail service to be restored in the existing corridor. We see the current legislation nominating it as a rail corridor the best protection for this.
We do not support the rail trails position of removing the tracks and the current legal protection at all. This position was shared by the Mullumbimby Chamber of Commerce by a unanimous vote.
The Collective feels that the many benefits of light or one- or two-carriage trains in dispersing and attracting visitors throughout the hinterland has never been adequately studied. We see many benefits on and beyond a rail trail and ideally the two could be combined in the existing corridor.
This government may not wish to undertake the restoration of rail services but another future government may, and to remove the protection that the existing legislation provides would make this much harder. We only need to look north to see the results of bad decision making that a few greedy in-the-know pollies and their mates benefited from to the detriment of the wider community. The idea that the current protection offered by the legislation would be replaced by a trust deed and unknown trustees who would properly balance the community benefits between short-term profits and long-term community benefits worries me. The terms of the proposed trust deed are totally unknown.
The argument that the existing corridor will not allow fast Shinkansen-like bullet trains to operate owing to its physical limitations is a total furphy, as we see this rail service to be oriented to local trips and tourism and as such the charm of the current alignment using small slow trains is a real benefit. The existing infrastructure is part of our heritage that was put in place by communities that cared for each other and community was often put over profit for individual community members.
Jobs are also mentioned as a benefit but of course the people saying this really mean that they will have businesses that will make profits. The balance between jobs and community is an ongoing issue as there are many other points that one needs to take into account to properly assess the equation.
The five councillors who voted to support the exclusive use of the rail corridor for cyclists in my opinion voted against the community values that I hold dear.
David Piesse, vice-president, The Hinterland Collective
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