The Tweed section of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail (NRRT) has been wildly successful, smashing user expectations and bringing business and opportunities to the Tweed Shire. Lismore City Council (LCC) is now looking to leverage similar opportunities for the Lismore to Bentley section which is currently being built while the Casino to Bentley section is set to open on Saturday, 23 March.
The 24 km Tweed section of the NRRT has seen more than 140,000 people use it since its opening on 1 March, 2023 smashing expectations of 27,000 users a year and establishing it as one of the most popular visitor attractions on the Northern Rivers.
Business opportunities
With the 16.3km stretch from Lismore to Bentley section of the NRRT currently under construction, LCC are looking to empower local businesses to take opportunities that the rail trail will provide. Council is on track to deliver the Lismore section in late 2024. This section will connect with the Casino to Bentley section, which opens on Saturday, 23 March.
With the impending influx of tourists, the council is urging local businesses to gear up for the economic boom and ensure the delivery of top-notch experiences. Simultaneously, the council remains dedicated to leveraging the NRRTl as a catalyst for economic growth within the community.
Lismore Council hosted a workshop this week designed to guide local operators on ways to capitalise on the potential marketing and sales opportunities the trail will provide, through the anticipated surge in tourism. Lismore City Mayor Steve Krieg emphasised the workshop’s significance as part of a series designed to equip local businesses with insights into the diverse demographics of rail trail users and their preferred visitor experiences.
‘The Lismore to Bentley section promises to substantially benefit the entire community by providing a fun and safe accessible pathway for walkers, cyclists, horse riders and people using mobility aids to enjoy and connect to our natural environment, as well as more job opportunities,’ said Mr Krieg.
Lismore City Council Manager Destination and Economy Tina Irish echoed the sentiment, calling the Trail a game changer for the region.
‘With insights gleaned from the Tweed section’s successful launch, we can maximise our preparation’, she said.
‘We know that over 94 per cent of NRRTl visitors expressed a desire to return to the trail, we know the most popular days of the week, times of the day and how visitors like to experience the trail. We want to share this with our business community to help make the Lismore to Bentley section the best experience it can be so are working on some exciting new business initiatives with our community as part of Lismore’s rail trail offerings.’
The Lismore to Bentley leg of the NRRT is funded by the Australian government’s Building Better Regions program.
To stay up to date on the Lismore to Bentley section of the NRRT or to enquire about workshops and business development support, go to: https://yoursay.lismore.nsw.gov.au/bentley-lismore-rail-trail.
Byron Shire risks looking like a giant pothole in the middle of this otherwise world class 132 km attraction.
This may easily become a major council election issue.
TOOT has apparently finally run out of its steam, as more and more Trail sees less and less of the 130 year old rotting tracks remaining, making viability of reinstating a rail service, utterly ridiculous and comedic.
The wonderful thing about the Rail Trail is that the entire 132 km corridor will be perpetually held in public ownership and will be available way down the track for whatever our future generations deem necessary, even a train again.
The public is becoming increasingly keen to see Byron Shire actively activating our languishing section.
It makes compelling political sense, like never before.
All of this must be a bit embarrassing to those who caused years to be wasted pointlessly trying to get rail services restored.
The imminent opening of the Casino to Bentley rail trail marks a significant advancement in the realm of sustainable transportation and leisure activities in the area. This development, coupled with the ongoing construction efforts in Lismore, demonstrates a forward-thinking commitment to enhancing the region’s infrastructure and promoting eco-friendly travel options. The rail trail not only provides a scenic and safe route for cyclists and pedestrians, connecting key locations, but also encourages a healthy lifestyle and supports local businesses along the path. It’s a commendable initiative that enriches the community, fosters tourism, and underscores the importance of preserving our environment while catering to the needs of the public.
How cool would it be to walk from Tweed to Casino! I hope they go through Byron, used to ride my bike from Kingscliff to Byron and back every year with my friends and had a great time, I haven’t been able to do it since most of the old tracks where closed for regeneration, it would mean attempting to ride the HWY.
Like old mate said just paving the way for the train to come back one day probably in time for the Olympics but Lismore needs something to bring more people to town it’s just a pity it’s not a rail and rail trail the greatest good for the greatest number that’s what civics is all about no pandering to minority groups
The train won’t be coming back. A two week sporting event is not a justification for spending billions connecting a few small towns to Queensland by rail.
Multiple professional engineers have stated that it is not possible to build the rail trail anywhere but on the formation. This fact is patently obvious to anyone who has been on the Tweed Valley Rail Trail. I wish those with zero experience on the trail would stop wasting our time with such ridiculous assertions.
The enormous amount of money required to reinstate the railway and operate services will be better spent for the greater good on essential services. Indeed it is not about pandering to minority groups of railway enthusiasts and their inflated sense of entitlement that demands vast amounts of public money be squandered on their indulgence.
Hi Greg, I always appreciate your scintillating and scathing response to any TOOT nonsense in the comments. You sir have been a key contributor to getting the rail trail happening purely through the combative war of words here – Thanks 🙂
Unfortunately the numbers given for Tweed fail to show a true representation of usage.
Murwillumbah Station & carpark sit void of activity most days. Counters are way off, they should be made available to the public. Rail trail org not local community benefit.
Business along the corridor has not boomed as suggested and an excess of hire bike shops sit empty daily.
Who stood to gain?
Considering last saturday was the 1 year celebration of the trail i thought the number users i could see from my house was kind of dismal!!!.
Yes exactly Chris. Only people who never used the train and don’t have to cope with daily traffic chaos would keep talking misleading nonesense with no facts or figures to back up their rhetoric about so-called benefits of the trail, let alone justify spending so many millions of public money to destroy valuable rail infrastructure worth many billions for ‘cycling tourism’. Unlike the FREE expensive bike track, which is NOT public transport and is increasing traffic in towns, people pay to use trains so there’s accurate, well documented records on train passenger numbers and economic returns. Unlike the one counter in the bike shop counting people going in AND out regardless of whether they ride the trail.
Many people living near the line have very different observations about the number of people using the trail and the so-called economic benefits to the community.
It’s no surprise that politicians would take advantage of people being distracted by trying to survive after multiple climate disasters to destroy the train line. It ‘s notable that they’re not out there spruiking the wonders of the trail- or being photographed on it-they’re leaving that to local councillors as they know there’s few votes for them in wasting taxpayers’ money in this shamefull way. Also no surprise that they’re not concerned about the 22% rise in emissions from transport in Australia since 2005.
It’s well known that the free trail ( note that as well as paying for the expensive build taxpayers will also be paying for maintenance) can be built on the 30mtre wide rail corridor-where there was already a track for vehicles to access the line for maintenance- for much less than it cost to destroy the line. It’s now obvious that this trail is costing taxpayers as much as so many CREDIBLE studies stated it would cost to repair the line for trains, for no net benefit to the community.
Plenty of facts and figures were given to back up the case for the rail trail and why returning trains to the old railway would not make any appreciable difference to the traffic on the roads. Meanwhile rail advocates continue to repeat the same tired platitudes and unsubstantiated myths without providing a shred of evidence beyond the folklore fantasies they have repeated so many time they think it is the truth.
The claim that the trail user numbers are determined with a counter on the bike shop door is one of the latest pieces of rubbish. Louise continues to show her profound ignorance of reality by repeating an old chestnut saying the trail could have been built on the imaginary maintenance track that anyone who had used the trail will attest doesn’t exist. Go and look at the trail, Louise and stop saying this nonsense.
The campaign for the trail began at least a decade ago. All the approvals were in place long before the flood and construction had already begun when the rains came. Hazell Bros took two months off the project to work with the council on dealing with the flood debris. BTW The small sections they had already built withstood the test by the most severe flood in documented history.
Politicians at all levels know that there are very few votes to be gained and many to be lost with any proposal to reinstate a derelict railway. Candidates who have stood for election on such policies have been resoundingly humiliated at the polls because very few people care about a railway that would be useless to the vast majority.
There are absolutely no credible reports saying that the railway could have been reinstated for the same cost as converting to a trail. Nor are there any credible reports that say the trail could be built without removing the railway.
The location of the counters is a closely guarded secret to prevent anyone tampering with them, as happened at a trail in Queensland where trail haters disabled them to make it appear the trail was not being used. Tweed Council uses the figures for their planning and they have nothing to gain by falsifying the numbers.
The Murwillumbah station car park does not sit void of activity. It is frequently filled to capacity and more cars park in the surrounding streets. Many trail users also walk or cycle to the trail.
BTW. Trail haters need to liaise with each other to decide on a consistent story. Is the trail something that nobody uses, or, as claimed by others, so busy that it has ruined the amenity of the towns and villages with nowhere left for locals to park?
Particularly of the giant gas guzzler variety!
The trail is a great asset , just move on , and get this wonderful bike ride finished. We will back when this is done .
If the burgers that be want the train back that what will happen those with the power do what ever they like just like if they want to build a road they can forcibly acquire your land so if they want the train for the Olympics they’ll put it back on that’s for sure
If a new railway were to be built from Queensland, the government would certainly resume whatever land was needed so it could be built in the best possible location, just as was done with the Pacific Motorway. It would be a duplicated line supporting trains simultaneously in both directions at 200 kph running close to the motorway. The old corridor is barely wide enough for the single line in many places between Murwillumbah and Burringbar and is subject to flooding.
Planners would not be interested in an a steam age corridor snaking its way through sparsely populated areas adding many kilometres to the route. As I said above, a two week sporting event is not a justification for spending billions on a railway. It isn’t going to happen.
No government is going to ever reinstate the railway on the original corridor.
I, speaking as a certified “Trail Hater” , am embarrassed by these fools who laud the destruction of publicly funded infrastructure in order to satisfy the whims of those feeble-minded bike and horsey riders, with nothing better to do than set off on a jaunt into the wilds on the trusty steed of their fancy, meanwhile rendering the inevitable building of mass transit to and from Brisbane exponentially more costly and logistically a nightmare, by destroying the already existing corridor.
Of course, there will be those who benefit financially but it won’t be the gullible who have set up trinket stores on the route, no it is destined to the property investors and lawyers who will have a field day when the government resumes the necessary route to connect to Queensland.
Such a failure of government planning. G”)
When someone resorts to terms like ‘fools’, ‘feeble-minded’ and ‘gullible’ we can rightly conclude that they don’t have anything intelligent to contribute to a discussion.
If Ken were in charge of planning, the Pacific Motorway would be running on Friday Hut Road and Stokers Road, which were the main roads when the original North Coast railway was built. Their locations were for exactly the same reasons as the railway was built on its original route. It was impractical and uneconomic to undertake huge earthworks with the available technology of the time.
The highway has since been upgraded multiple times on new better faster routes. The planning documents for a future railway in the region have already been prepared. It is for a dual heavy rail through a seven kilometre tunnel under Tweed Head then following close to the motorway to Yelgun where it would be nearly twenty kliometres shorter that any route using the old corridor.
The government is not failing in planning. They have visions for modern facilities like high speed trains and a remarkable rail trail facility.
Those incapable of planning are the rail advocates looking backwards in time, obsessed with a derelict nineteenth century railway that could never contribute to the needs of the twenty first century.
Just between Murwillumbah and Crabbes Creek there are 27 bridges. The cost of replacing the track and bridges right through to Casino would be horrendous. I’ve used the train from Casino to Sydney and apart from being slow it’s seldom at full capacity.
Locals who used the train regularly know the train was well used by paying passengers, especially during holidays and schoolies, that’s why it cost $22 million to run and returned $11 million per year to taxpayers whike taking millions of cars off our roads. Those who could avoided using it during the busy times. Could the cyclists please tell us what the returns are for taxpayers’ on the expensive $24 million spent on the M’bah to crabbes Creek bike track? So far it’s looking like $000,000,0000.
Locals have done their research and know that restoring the line for trains will cost little more than building the FREE bike track. As restoring the Byron of section of line, including a bridge, for trains demonstrates, There’s little diffference in the cost of replacing the bridges for a bike track than for a commuter train. Train services will cost much less than the billions it will cost to build and maintain more roads for more monster gas guzzlers to fill our once idyllic towns. And there’s plenty of room on the 30 mtr wide corridor for a trail as well.
Win Win for all at less cost to taxpayers.
Wow! You win the internet today for exaggeration! Congratulations. It is such a shame that no-one, except a handful of nostalgic train buffs, would ever treat your opinion as anymore than a work of fiction.
The purported $11 million profit is a rail advocate myth, one of those I mentioned previously as being unsubstantiated but repeated so many times that they assume it must be true. Railways don’t make a profit.
In any case, the train Louise is talking about was discontinued over thirty-four years ago. The context has changed enormously since then with cheap air fares, the completion of the Pacific Motorway, and modern cars. The claim that the train took ‘millions of cars off the road’ is utterly ludicrous.
The Tweed Valley Rail Trail cost $14 million, not $24 million. It is exceeding all the objectives outlined in the business case that led to its funding and construction. It is huge success and visitors are contributing substantially to the Tweed economy. That is the return on investments as described in the business case.
Professional engineering consultants have advised that it is not possible to construct a trail within the corridor without removing the railway. Anyone asserting otherwise has absolutely no knowledge of the reality.
Train services will never replace the need for investments in roads. Pouring hundreds of millions into an anachronistic railway that could never make a signification contribution to the transport needs of the region is not a sensible investment. It isn’t going to happen. The decision to convert the corridor to a trail has been made at all relevant government levels and forty percent of the new trail is already competed or under construction.
It must be miserable being a train hater look at the ghan the Indian Pacific people flock to those trains in their thousands not to mention the British trains you see on tv how popular are they the Hogwarts steam train in Scotland and also the train that runs at glenreagh and the one from Coffs in the holidays the sunshine coast is going ahead with rail and the Inland rail cost thirty billion from Melbourne to Brisbane though not finished of course but the train along side the rail trail would only cost two or three billion
Absolutely and train hater is definately not an exaggeration either as is obvious with the way certain trail people attack anyone who advocates that our corridor should be a railway again!!
Arguing against people who demand hundreds of millions of dollars of public money to be squandered providing luxury public transport to a tiny minority does not make us “train haters”. Trains certainly have their place but that place does not include an isolated railway connecting some small towns in a sparsely populated area.
Rail advocates are continuing to mislead the public into the belief that there is some possibility of the railway being reinstated. This causes pointless controversy and conflict. Nobody is going to pay the huge costs.
They continue to try to delay the construction of the trail. Years have been wasted on their nonsense in Byron while other LGAs have embraced the potential of the project and gotten on with the job. Those with the power to make all the necessary decisions can see what has been going on and have decided to get on with it.
The trail is being constructed. It is over for the railway. Forty percent of it has already been demolished. Get used to it and stop wasting everyone’s time pretending otherwise. End of story.
All the train journeys mentioned by Alan run on working public railways. That is where heritage trains need to run to be financially sustainable. None of them involve private groups restoring and maintaining isolated railways that were officially derelict before being abandoned and have been buried in dense vegetation for decades.
Glenreagh is a special exception which I’m glad Alan mentioned. Glenreagh Mountain Railway bought the old corridor between Glenreagh and Ulong in the 1990s for one dollar, with the proposal to operate a heritage train. Ulong to Dorrigo was similarly given to Dorrigo Steam Railway and Museum. Neither group achieved the stated goal and the corridor is now completely overgrown with some sections seriously eroded.
In fact GMR has recently sold their interests to Tallowood Mountain Rail Trail.
Trains have not run on the old Casino-Murwillumbah corridor for twenty years. Anyone proposing a heritage project could have made application to do so at any time, just as the Elements Train project did on the three kilometres of line between Byron Bay and Bayshore Drive. Not even one proposal was put forward to the parliament when the closure for the trail was debated in 2020. There are no plausible proposals to run trains. Hence there is no reason to keep the railway tracks.
The Sunshine Coast has a population of 370,000, concentrated in a relatively small linearly oriented area. It is also a dormitory suburb for many people who work in Brisbane. Our old railway doesn’t go anywhere and especially not near where the majority of people live and work.
Anyone who refers to the cost of rebuilding the old railway as ‘only two or three billion’ needs a dose of financial reality.
How ridiculous – and desperate. No-one hates trains. I want one on an alignment that’s useful for 21st the century demographics and needs of the area. One that might have a chance of being viable.
In the meantime, most people welcome the creative use of unviable lines as fantastic community assets, a trend that has been welcomed around Australia and beyond. This debate is so boring – the trail is now a reality and instead of sitting at home being bitter, I reckon it would do wonders for all the “trail haters” to get out into the fresh are. On ya’ bikes!
Um you have the gold coast up the road where plenty of people from the northern Rivers work and I’m not against the rail trail just they could of put both rail and the trail side by side but anyway time will tell to see what happens once another ten thousand people move to the area and there’s clogged roads everywhere
Alan, you might have noticed that the rail line in question doesn’t go to the Gold Coast. If it was viable to put a line from somewhere in the Northern Rivers to the Gold Coast that need not impact on this disused alignment that is being converted to a rail trail. Nor, for it to service the needs of the Northern Rivers population would Murwillumbah be the ideal starting point for such a service. Those extra ten thousand people are unlikely to be nicely distributed along the Casino to Murwillumbah line.
How many times do you need to have it pointed out that it’s not correct that “ they could of (sic) put both rail and the trail side by side”? Do you not believe the reports?
Professional engineering reports have firmly established that the trail cannot be built anywhere but on the formation. This fact is perfectly evident to anyone who has been on the Tweed Valley Rail Trail.
The population growth in the region is happening nowhere near the railway corridor. Any railway to the Gold Coast would involve a seven kilometre tunnel under Tweed Heads and a $2 billion railway direct to Yelgun then close to the motorway to Ballina., shaving nearly twenty kilometres from the journey. The concept planning documents for the Tweed section are available at the Tweed Council website. Design engineers would put the railway where it best serves the population. Their interest in a derelict nineteenth century corridor snaking its way through the creek valleys would be close to zero.