Nearly 110,000 guests have visited the Tweed section of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail since it opened on the first of March, The Tweed Shire Council says.
The council says the figure shows popularity of the trail has surpassed expectation, with Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry saying the Tweed section from Murwillumbah to Crabbes Creek has led the way with quality experiences and amenities.
Visitor numbers reportedly average more than 12,000 per month, or nearly 3,000 people per week.
Information on how the visitor numbers have been calculated has been requested.
Natural beauty and charming village life irresistible
The mayor says the busiest day for the Tweed rail trail is Sunday with weekends the busiest overall.
Monday and Tuesday are the quieter days of the week, Cr Cherry says, and most people are recorded out on the trail between 9am – 11am.
Cr Cherry has attributed the success of the project to the ‘unique nature and outdoor recreation opportunities the trail provides, especially as a free, safe and family-friendly experience’.
‘The Rail Trail provides an opportunity to reconnect with nature, breathe in fresh air and soak in the breathtaking beauty of the Tweed’s landscapes and the charming village life at our seven rest stops,’ the mayor has said via media release.
The 24-kilometre Tweed section of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail is the first stage of the project, which is to eventually connect Murwillumbah and Casino.
The Richmond Valley section of the NRRT is reportedly on schedule for a soft opening in December 2023.
The Byron Shire Council recently resolved to move forward with planning and approvals for a Rail Trail expansion extending from Mullumbimby to Crabbes Creek, encompassing the old Byron Bay station through Bangalow to Booyong.
OK – I’m going to make it easy for all the naysayers/rail folks to jump on this article – just tick one of the options for all your usual tired arguments:
a) Where do these figures come from? I’ve never been on the rail trail but someone on Facebook said there are only a handful of users on any given day. These figures are incorrect and Council should be sacked.
b) This corrupt rail trail is a travesty and we need a railway really badly – even though there is no govt support for it and the finances do not stack up.
c) I don’t like it and will disagree vehemently with any ‘good’ news about the rail trail because there wasn’t enough consultation/blah blah…
knock yourselves out…
A. They don’t know how many guests have used it, only how many passes of their counting thingy.
To clarify, there are multiple counters on the rail trail. Algorithms are applied To provide good estimates of use.
Yeah no one’s against the rail trail they just want the train along with it even a monorail over the top of the rail trail would be perfect and provide shade for the rail trailers
Well sorry mate but I have rode on it on a Saturday and a Monday and it was very busy with every age of person. I also think it was very good money spent going by how many people were stopping at towns buying food and coffee. I myself stopped at the animal farm and enjoyed a chat with others, all enjoying the area. Yes, the council does rely on the counter but I didn’t see anyone running in circles adding false numbers. To anyone else reading this, enjoy the ride and peace with no cars. Have a nice day. Geoff
I don’t care what you put there, but they can’t say guests.
TMy family settled in the Tweed in the 19c at Stokers Siding and in Condong. I was always told how visitors to their farms – even itinerant unemployed workers in the 30s -were always treated as guests .
I have ridden or walked the trail eight times times and I am pleased to say – with one unpleasant exception- who has since left her employment – every local I interacted with continued the Tweed tradition of country hospitality by treating my friends and I as guests.
It’s great to see Byron Shire has started to embrace this fabulous use of our fabulous corridor.
We came very close to yet another 20 years of senseless procrastination via hair-brained dreams.
Every ride I’ve done on the Tweed section has felt great, yet surprisingly different, so ongoing interest and enjoyment is all but assured.
Of the huge variety of happy users, the dreaded “Lycra elite minority”, are just that, the minority, but good luck to them too..
Ride and walk on..
Whilst this is great news and provides plenty of business for towns it not a walking track as bikes dominate plus they could put a trackless tram on it to have both transport options supported i Alan Mosley Yamba
Well Alan, your concerns of walkers being dominated, would be thoroughly exacerbated with your trackless tram wish.
In fact, cyclists would be even more dominated than walkers, as walkers could walk off the formation when necessary.
What a strange suggestion..
How slow are these people pedalling? Stick a cow catcher on it.
Why do think they bought trams back in Sydney and are extending trans on the gold coast because they are a good idea and why is the solar train a such a good idea no one complains about that obviously people here have train tram phobia
Trams are a rapid transit system in densely populated areas. That is why the billions of dollars it costs to build these systems can be justified.
The Gold Coast has a population of 600,000 and the only partially completed Light Rail already carries ten million passengers per year. Eight services run past every hour for most of the day and into the night.
It makes absolutely no sense to build and operate railways to connect a couple of small towns with populations of a few thousand. Nobody is going to spend billions of dollars building a railway running through sparsely populated areas. The buses have hardly anyone on them.
you should move to mullumbimby alan because what ever your smoking is too good for yamba
Ha ha mate Mullumbimby madness hey mate lol.i just think about everyone not just my own convenience greatest good for the greatest number no selfish arrogance lol 😂
Then you wouldn’t be encouraging people wasting energy on bike rides. Exercise increases your CO2 output. Such selfishness.
This is the best experience on the north coast. Imagine When you can ride from
Murwillumbah to casino with all of the great scenery along the way, cafes, camp grounds,and opportunities for artisans.bring it on!
The figures do sound overly inflated but even if you divide by 10, they are quite impressive.
The railway line is a dead issue; wrong place, wrong time.
Do the maths on the figures then observe for a few days as you use the trail how many use it ….. , just try and make sense of it , that is if you can even get any public transport there without driving your car and bike on back lol
Casual observations is not a good guide to trail usage. You can’t observe the length of a 24 km trail frim.eaely morning inti the evening. That’s why they use multiple counters to derive good estimates of use.
I’ve ridden the trail on Sundays and passed at least a thousand people going in the opposite direction. I’ve done two of the Murwillumbah Mooners full moon rides to Mooball and seen sixty or more other riders on each night.
Many users ride their bikes or walk to the trail. We need to complete the whole trail so people don’t need to travel far to use it. A lot of people currently drive up from Byron Shire.
Riden this twice with my wife and friends (driving up from Cronulla), this is great ride and experience. Once complete from Casino it will be not only a local attraction but an international one. Businesses in local towns along the trail will benefit from the flow of riders and walkers who all spend money as they need to be accommodated and fed.
When completed, the trail will be a wonderful addition to the Northern Rivers regional recreational opportunities (from family groups to those wishing to gun it in a day), and confer an economic benefit to local businesses. Beautiful countryside but hope the trail-side weeds are dealt with, regularly! Great to see work currently under way on the Lismore-Casino section.
It opened and was used in the cooler months, might be different story in the height of the Australian summer, especially where there’s no coverage 🥵
The trail opened on the first of March and it was still hot for a couple of months yet there were many users. Still busy on hot days now, especially early mornings.
The extensive tree cover is one of the trail’s best features and it is only going to get better.
Look, it’s a pros and cons thing.
I live in the area, crabbes creek infact.. and I gotta ask Peter G, what government support and finances don’t stack up?? This is still massive infrastructure and will require maintenance, it still requires security, of which there is none, there is no lighting. I have it from the horses mouth that the boys and girls in blue could not access 90% of the track if they wanted to. No emergency phones or call points. Try get an airlift, only if you could walk out to an area suitable, no emergency intervention of any kind unless coming in on bicycle or walk or on horse back. So don’t get bit, or have a coronary or stroke or even stack it hard.. you’re on ya own.
These logistical issues should have been taken into account during planning, not waiting for the first fatality, or assault..
Look at the awesome extra attention the area is getting,
home invasion and physical assault in burringbah, up. A lot easier to get away. No one in custody for that…
Oh and the week after it opened, our quiet country town in lockdown with a gunman on the loose and who still is. If security of the towns and the users were thought of, maybe some cctv cameras around or security lights or some sort of monitoring, may deter these events, but NOPE. I’m not a “naysayer”, just someone who values my neighbours, my families and friends lives and the security of our tranquil little corner of this beautiful country.
I think it’s a great idea, but extremely poorly thought out, designed and rushed through.
You cannot tell me, that getting a little train picking up at already situated stations being manned by human beings and with modern cons like, lighting, would have cost a shit ton more..??
I haven’t even touched on all the extra traffic on the roads with there over load of bikes hanging out of everywhere. More traffic more pollution ( both airborne and in my creeks) more risk of traffic accidents.. and the ones not driving overloaded to ride the trail are riding to the trail to ride it, on their racer bikes that they think are the size of the cane trucks, trying to take up the whole lane. Oh yes, during cane season, how fun for ever operator involved in that business… have you seen the result of unprotected human Vs truck??? I have, not something I recommend..
I’m not for or against.
I’m for realistic thought and planning…
Oh, pro’s.
Fitness, being outside and enjoying our beautiful and diverse wildlife and ecosystems..
you can’t sit in ya corner and truly care if you 100% feel there are no issues what so ever with this.. if our shores take it on, please just look logistically at every single situation..!
What a load of ridiculous waffle. The notion that the trail is an ideal getaway path for criminals and causing more crime is utterly ludicrous. There is a lot of passive monitoring by the huge numbers of people on the trail. Far more effective than any CCTV.
The trail was designed to allow access by emergency vehicles. You clearly have never been on the trail.
I don’t know what universe you come from where maintaining a railway and operating trains with manned stations is only marginally more expensive than people just riding bicycles on a path. Nobody was going to pay for it to be a railway again and it would have been useless to the vast majority.
It is nonsense to be pretending you have no position while wholeheartedly bagging it.
I think the horse you spoke to was in fact a donkey
My husband and I rode it with son and daughter in law in August. We’ve ridden lots of trail trails both in Australia and New Zealand. Although this one was a small one it was well done. Ebike hire was expensive compared to others but should come down with more hires. We bought food from a farm stall and drinks from the township.
Good on you Tweed. Can’t wait for the next stages.
Despite the comments ( and the dangers) I have thoroughly enjoyed both walking and biking the track 3 times. Just marvellous to take in God’s beautiful creation. No adventure ( and we need adventure ) is ever without risk! Steve ex Mbah now Currumbin.
Bring back the railway line ,bring back the trains both passenger and freight.dont forget whose party policy it was to shut it . Greiner and Baird fwits who took notice of America contractors booze Allen and Hamilton who have no knowledge whatsoever of Australian railways .if Labor don’t reopen this line we can vote them out , simple as that.dont vote liberal either because they don’t want it open either.
Electors had the opportunity to vote for candidates openly supporting the return of trains in both the state and local government elections. Their abysmal support resulted in utterly humiliating defeats. Former leading trail opponent, Tweed mayor, Chris Cherry completely changed her tune once the trail had been built and she saw its popularity. There is very little support for returning trains remaining, just a small but noisy delusional minority who have about as much credibility as flat-earthers now.
The Labor Party happened to be in office when the bleeding obvious needed to happen and train services were suspended. Both sides of parliament agreed when the results of the enquiry were tabled in 2013 and that was the end of it. All major parties enthusiastically support the rail trail. Completing it and extending it to Tweed is included in the government’s current transport policy document.
Nobody is going to care if you waste you vote on a loser.
TMy family settled in the Tweed in the 19c at Stokers Siding and in Condong. I was always told how visitors to their farms – even itinerant unemployed workers in the 30s -were always treated as guests .
I have ridden or walked the trail eight times times and I am pleased to say – with one unpleasant exception- who has since left her employment – every local I interacted with continued the Tweed tradition of country hospitality by treating my friends and I as guests.
I have a friend , he is 76, he walks the trail everyday or at least 15klms of the trail. He loves it and he keeps healthy by walking everyday rain or shine. But lately he has become depressed. Why ? Because with so many bikes on the trail using extremely powerful lights during the day that are capable of damages his eyes , every time the bikes coming in the opposite direction out of the tunnel, he tried to ask people to switch their lights off when coming out of the tunnel but was abused every time he did, one day a young man he had previously asked came flying out of the tunnel, recognised him and purpose rode straight at him causing him to stumble he tried to protect himself with his walking stick, he fell to the ground and badly grazed his hands and knees, the bully boy then rode past him, turned around came back at him and stole his walking stick, so what was a healthy enjoyable activity became a dangerous and abusive activity. I asked him to report it to police so it doesn’t happen to others but he said no it would make it worse the bully boy would come back and have another go at him and probably kill him next time. He has approached council but he says the response was unsympathetic and more stonewalling. If only they put lights in the tunnel , if only the lights pointed downwards but he was told to wear sunglasses , so the violent bully boy has won he gets to abuse and intimidate a 76 old man wanting a peaceful daily walk and my friend get to be depressed quite the opposite of healthy pursuit. I ask the council to have a look straight into those powerful bike lights for themselves and see how they like it Yeap bully boys rule in this country and nothing can be done about it for fear of even worst retribution.