It was very interesting to read the article in last week’s Echo. I well remember a meeting held in Murwillumbah where Byron Mayor, Michael Lyon, said that Byron had four million visitors a year and needed a light rail to help take tourists away from the town. Apart from shutting the town off from the tourists, there were very few alternatives.
Things seem to have changed since then, from what I read. A bike track will do nothing to alleviate this problem. Cr Pugh seems to be pushing for an environmental impact study… because of the devastation a light rail proposal would cause to local ecological communities. From his words I would guess that this demand most certainly would not apply to a rail trail. Of course, a rail trail would require no clearing of the regrowth?
On the Tweed section, Hazzel Bros were straight in with their positracks, excavator trucks to rip up the rail lines and sleepers to create Tweed’s rail trail. I would contend that not interfering with the existing rail line infrastructure would cause much less ecological damage than building the proposed rail trail for an insignificant minority group, and would benefit the majority.
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. 
