Marie Lawton, Northern Rivers Rail Trail.
In response to the article in last week’s Echo: Northern Rivers Rail Trail (NRRT) did not ‘accuse’ Simon Richardson of anything, but stated the facts. Simon would not support the proposal for the Tweed rail trail to go through to Billinudgel although previously he has said he fully supported NRRT’s plans to continue working towards a rail trail north of Billinudgel.
Following their AGM on September 2, NRRT decided to not collaborate with the Byron Line, partly because of the mayor’s lack of cooperation and partly because of the lack of any forthcoming funding. It could take years to get yet another feasibility study funded and completed, with the most likely result being that the corridor is only suitable for a rail trail.
Our decision was made a week earlier than Don Page’s media release, not just after. Don said, ‘sitting on the fence and pretending you can have it both ways does not display leadership’.
Simon says our community clearly wants a rail shuttle (which would be privately operated) but has no idea how it would be funded or how a rail trail would work alongside it. He said at the meeting on August 26 that the ‘rail trail may have to go off the corridor in places’. How and where that would happen is a mystery. I can’t see Council buying up private land near to the corridor.
Simon also says his plan can ‘provide TOOT and public transport advocates a chance to get a people-mover for our kids and less fit to get around our shire. Also, our daily commuters and anyone else who would use a decent commuter service regularly.’
Firstly, he is only talking Bangalow to Billinudgel and is talking about a tourist operation, which is unlikely to be cheap to use. This is not a decent commuter service.
His reasoning for the rail trail not receiving the first round of funding was because it was not shovel-ready and ‘it is clear the government wants Byron Shire to come back with a fully costed option for activating the rail corridor that unites instead of dividing the community.’
One of the reasons that the NRRT failed the first time was that it was given erroneous advice from the NSW government to seek all EOI (Expressions Of Interest) from all interested parties, which the NRRT dutifully undertook, and that Simon’s multi-modal push fatally exacerbated this erroneous instruction further.
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. 
