David Gilet, Byron Bay
The idea of an inland railway is a foolish one and is just a device used by the National Party to indicate they care for their constituents.
Every survey ever undertaken [on this issue] indicates it would never make a profit.
As the majority of business and agricultural activity occurs along the east coast, governments would do a lot better to revive the railway along the Pacific coast, and build a link between Murwillumbah and Brisbane and revive, or even build, more feeder lines.
Freight depots in the larger towns would increase employment in those areas.
Governments are always claiming they are trying to encourage people to move to rural areas but they do little other than pork barreling by moving government departments to rural towns.
If people were assured they could visit their local large centre in the morning, and return by evening, this would go a long way toward encouraging people to remain in more remote areas, and may even encourage people to move to these areas. Nowadays, such services could be remotely controlled – which would lower the costs 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. 
