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March 27, 2024

Rail trail group trying to ‘save corridor’, not take it over

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Who will manage a rail trail? (supplied)
Who will manage a rail trail? (supplied)

A group wanting to establish rail trails on the region’s disused railways appears to be conflicted with its message regarding whether it would take over, or manage, the railway line if given the authority.

Northern Rivers Rail Trail’s (NRRT) Marie Lawton told The Echo the not-for-profit is ‘trying to save the corridor, not take it over.’

But Butler Street resident Paul Jones from the Grab The Rail group instead claims the NRRT are ‘greedy and uncompromising,’ with regards to for the possiblilty of other uses such as light rail.

He said, Rail Trail ‘is not so much a sell-off, more a takeover. If they cannot walk beside a road in Byron Bay, then they most likely will not walk alongside a train.’

It came in response to questions regarding NRRT’s business case, which was submitted to Tourism NSW as part of a failed funding application last year.

A request by The Echo to view the business case was previously denied by NRRT; however, Mr Jones provided it. His Grab The Rail group had acquired it under a freedom of information request.

The Echo asked why NRRT wouldn’t take over the rail, when the business case states: ‘The [NRRT] Trust has full control of the rail corridor and its buildings, and overall management responsibility of the rail trail.’

Ms Lawton replied, ‘The Trust was a proposed operating model for management of the rail corridor. It would be a government-appointed body. It was only a proposed model, not necessarily the one the government would adopt. One of the responsibilities of the Trust would be to manage the Rail Trail. It would also manage any other activities on the corridor. These activities would have to be approved by the government. Councils are unable to do this task so another avenue has to be sought.

‘The rail trail would not “take over” the corridor. It would be one potential use that a possible Trust could manage.

‘The Trust could be made up of Council members, businesspeople, volunteers, tourist groups – and maybe a member of NRRT inc.

‘Would you have an idea for a better model for managing a corridor that we insist should remain in public ownership? NRRT Inc is trying to save the corridor, not take it over. The big risk is asset sale by the state government.

‘At the moment, the only thing stopping the government from selling the corridor is the rail trail.

‘Without our work for the rail trail, the corridor could already have been sold for the sort of commercial development no-one in Byron Shire wants.’


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8 COMMENTS

  1. The Echo should be aware that this article has been copied by a website called “no to rail trails.” The site’s comment was “The real agenda of rail trail advocates has been exposed!!!” I pointed out that the agenda of the rail trail group appeared to be putting in place a rail trail. The measure of the quality of commentary of this “no to rail trails.” group is in its response: “Anyway, we wont have to worry, these imbeciles up there have stuffed any hope of getting a trail built for themselves!.” I have questioned why the site uses abusive language to promote its cause but its only comment is that is stating fact! I wonder about the validity of people’s cases when they need to resort to that sort of language.

    • Peter, that site in question is simply a ‘hate site’. They resort to personal attacks on proponents of rail trails and constantly copy posts/articles into their site and comment as you have described. There is no intelligent debate/discussion on this site, just anger and hate.

      • I have to agree Damon. It was a link on the Tram people’s site so I though I might learn something about the objections to rail trail. which I thought was a rather obvious and uncontroversial use for now unused rail corridors. There is another similar site with a similar name and similar vitriol on it. When I queried about the long disused Captains Flat railway that serviced passengers and a mine to that small village 50 years ago, a route on the way to nowhere if ever there was one, I was directed to a “rail trail” website promoting walking and historical train use ion the site. They posted a lot of links to the ACT Historical Rail Society, but evidently it is all a sham. – there is no plan to use the long disused corridor for rail. I guess if you sit in front of a computer writing opinions long enough, reality evaporates. By contrast most of my friends have gone on cycling trips to the Victorian rail trails – the are very popular with Canberra’s large senior cycling community who are nervous on the roads. I can appreciate there is some attachment to using rail in the Northern Rivers, but it really is a sentimental one; it is not a particularity energy or cost efficient transport outside high volume situations like the 200km city just North, and the existing route is too far from the growth corridor of the Tweed Coast and the Byron Bay – – Ballina – Lismore crescent to be taken seriously as a public transport option. In 1980, after returning from three years cycling in Europe and America I was proud to be introduced in Nimbin to Pete the Pedaler who was demonstrating 35 years ago how you could live with just a bike. It is a shame that others of the ostensibly, dare I say ostentatiously, green citizens of the Byron Shire are not more open to people who want to tour the coast on the greenest transport of them all – the bike.

  2. To be fair, you have to hand it to the NRRT mob for having a go. Except their chardonnay-sipping ambitions for a rail trail, fail to account for the on-going maintenance costs that will benefit only a few. Of course, the vast percentage of people spread across the region who understand the obvious sense in having a fully operation passenger rail service that fully addresses their needs can only watch on in frustration as these cloying trendies try to achieve their self-serving ends…. Somewhere there’s a place that really deserves a rail trail and would gladly welcome them with all their networking and shmoozing skills. It’s just not the Northern rivers.

    • As a soon to be resident of Ballina, can you explain how ” a fully operation passenger rail service” will fully addresses my needs? And why do you refer to the proponents of the rail tail as “chardonnay sipping” and “cloying trendies”? If you mean cycling is an increasingly popular trend in Australia that is true; is that a bad thing and why would that be cloying? I would also be interested to know what is the exact percentage of people in the region who support a fully operational rail system, and what is your reference to support that? I certainly would be surprised given the high private car dependency and usage in the area.

  3. The legislation of the Transport Administration Act. prevents the sale of this rail corridor as it is in fact not officially closed (That requires an act of parliament), plus the fact the railway infrastructure (the railway tracks) are still in place means no legal dismantling of or sale of rail land/infrastructure can take place.

    By destroying the rail infrastructure and turing the land into a rail trail means the very protective legistlation that is the reason the tracks are here today. As a rail trail, the land has no such protection and is at great risk of sell off.

    Sooner rather than later, we must realise the only way we can keep the rail corridor secure in public hands is to keep it the way it is right now – a railway line.

    • Gary Ainsworth Surely your concern is not with public ownership of the land per se but its retention for rail use. The Northern Rivers Regional Transport Plan referenced the government’s own review of he viability of reusing the line for transport and the Plan does not recommend reusing rail as public transport – it sensibly recommends as I do improving the bus services. I have yet to see in these discussions any argument put to counter the cogent economic, geographic and social case that the Plan puts. The last time the topic of rail use was discussed you directed me to the Byron Bay TramLink. It is as I suggested it would be, a tourist usage of the corridor. The proposed rail trail is that too. Rail trails provide an affordable form of tourism, and one that is more healthful, and of lower environmental impact, than many other forms of recreational use. It is for the government to judge which tourist use is the more worthwhile, or to fund the higher cost of enabling shared usage. Calling it an “Act of Parliament” makes it sound formidable, but If it requires a change of legislation to do something that is decided of be of benefit than of course you change the legislation. If in due course it is decided that a rail-based public transport is viable on the North Coast it will be a massive investment and it would not make sense to use the Murwillumbah route. Any existing tourist usage on any part of the current alignment like rail trail would probably need to need to be separately accommodated – that would be a very small part of the cost of a new railway. It would be wise to allow for the possibility in any enabling legislation but as I have noted before, rail as public transport is not going to happen on the Northern Rivers until quite some time in the future.

      • My concerns lie with both corridor protection and the reinstatement of the rail services this region so desperately needs; Both are extremely important and play an integral part in this region. Just because the rail does not serve you in Ballina does not mean it is a failure all together. You obviously don’t use the infrequent bus services, because if you did, you would not be saying “More buses!” The journey by TrainLink coach to Byron Bay is shocking, it is no wonder people tend not to use it! The bus rocks and sways everywhere as it negotiates the potholes on the crumbling roads. I can still remember catching the Murwillumbah XPT to Murwillumbah about a year before the line closed – It was a very smooth ride on what was then a reliatively new XPT fleet. The service was always comfortable, and there was never any shortage of people despite the service being very poorly timetabled. It was always faster than any bus service, contrary to some ill-informed people saying the alignment makes the trains too slow. However it is no surprise, with the current state of the roads, that the bus services don’t see much use.

        By calling it an Act of Parliament, I was simply referring to its real name – Not attempting to make it sound formidable or what not.

        The fact is, a new railway line has 0 chance of happening in the foreseeable future. And why spend billions on a new railway line when this one is just fine? Bus operators could easily set up connection bus services from say Lismore railway station to Ballina.

        The alignment has nothing to do with the fact trains are not running and the population densities have nothing to do with it. The reason trains are not running at the moment is just lack of political will, nothing more. The study you reference Petrus is just another example of this. For too long now the Northern Rivers, one of the fastest growing places in NSW, has been neglected and forgotten about by the Sydney based politicians.

        The Commonwealth Games of 2018 on the Gold Coast is coming in 2 years time. Now is the perfect time to start planning for a new rail service. We simply cannot afford to leave the railway idle or convert it into a slightly useless pathway. If you think the traffic right now in Byron is bad, imagine that x100 when the Commonwealth Games are here. We will have people from all four corners of the globe swamping the NR (Byron I’m looking at you) with all their cars, while further increasing already bad congestion and worsening the state of already bad roads, and meanwhile we could have a empty rail trail that could be proving to be a huge help if we had the foresight to reinstate trains.

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