In reply to Paul Spooner’s, Matt Hartley’s, and Basil Cameron’s responses in last week’s Byron Shire Echo article ‘$50m rail trail funding announced’.
To Paul Spooner: do you seriously think this $50 million is a simple handout to anyone that wants it for whatever they want it for? Well no, it’s not. It is part of the NSW Tourism budget, and nothing at all to do with traffic on Ewingsdale Road, or the horrendous West Byron debacle. Traffic from Lismore and Bangalow, comes into the south of Byron, nowhere near the CBD. Traffic from the north, largely comes from Brisbane and the Gold Coast, not Murwillumbah, Stoker’s Siding, Burringbar, Mooball etc.
And to Matt Hartley’s call for a community discussion on the use of the derelict rail corridor; Give us all a break Matt, we’ve all had 11 years to do that.
And Basil Cameron even says the $50 million ‘is a disgraceful waste of public money’, as if spending $1 billion (that’s 20 times more) on an 1890s designed freight corridor to get an archaic fossil fuel train back, is fiscally responsible policy, and is not a disgraceful waste of public money. Hmmm. Well, that speaks for itself really.
Tim Sha
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
