While we all agree that it is good to have ambition, completely ignoring relevant facts turns ambition into fantasy. Tweed, Richmond Valley, Lismore and Ballina Shires have all accepted what successive NSW governments have been saying for the past 20 years. No public commuter train service will be returned to the Murwillumbah-Casino line!
Does anyone honestly believe the 100-year-old rails and sleepers would even be used by a reinstated train service? The Tooters do. They hold up the Elements train as a proof of concept. The fact that the Elements train runs on the flattest, straightest, shortest stretch of track at the blistering pace of 10km/h appears not to get in the way of that fantasy.
The Elements train is licensed as a tourist venture, not as public transport. The state government has always been the only public transport train operator. The inherent risks and liabilities of a rural commuter train service operating in all weather conditions are huge. No government is going to license a private operator to do this, and no insurer would take one on. Yet this is the proposal that is still being spruiked by train lobbyists to Byron Shire Council.
Sure, if the Northern Rivers population density ever approaches that of the Gold Coast, then a train service might make sense. That service may even use some sections of the current corridor (which the rail trail will have preserved). Of course, this train will be a relatively straight double carriageway on new electrified tracks with concrete sleepers, like all modern train lines.
If we want better public transport, Council should be lobbying the government for a fleet of small, nimble electric buses that take people from where they live directly to where they need to go.
Initially, the Tooters just wanted ‘Trains On Our Tracks’. They now want a train with a trail next to it. This change of heart is owing to their realisation that thousands of locals and their kids actually want a safe, easy cycle and walking trail that connects communities through spectacular country.
Unfortunately, a trail beside the tracks is actually a furphy. Much of the rail meanders across the hinterland on narrow cuttings with steep slopes, single lane bridges over creeks and dense vegetation, and long narrow tunnels through the hills. Apart from a few flat, flood-prone, sections, it is unrealistic to have a train and trail side-by-side.
Instead of continuing to waste hundreds of thousands of ratepayers’ dollars chasing fanciful diesel-burning trains, our progressive Council should join the 21st century and support electric bikes, carts, and scooters on the world’s best rail trail. Is our ‘green’ Council really going to be the last to support the healthiest, lowest-carbon mode of transport there is?
Tell your councillors to partner with our neighbouring shires, take advantage of the available state and federal rail trail grants, and complete the amazing Murwillumbah to Casino Northern Rivers Rail Trail.
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. 
