Is it time for Byron Council to let go of the long-held vision of returning trains to the tracks in Byron and focus on the more achievable task of building a rail trail?
This is the decision facing Council this week when it considers a motion proposing just such a course.
In a move with significant implications for both residents and business, Labor councillor Asren Pugh is proposing that Byron forge ahead with a rail trail, waving goodbye to its long-held policy of having both trains and a trail.
‘This debate has gone on too long and the community has missed out on significant funding opportunities because Council has not had a clear, consistent and logical policy on the trail corridor,’ Cr Pugh told The Echo.
‘It’s time to get the rail trail built, from end to end.’
Cr Pugh agreed with staff’s comment that the commitment of Council under mayors Simon Richardson, Michael Lyon, and strongly supported at the time by current mayor Sarah Ndiaye, to a ‘“multi-use” (rail with trail) model for the Mullumbimby to Byron Bay section, had resulted in significant technical complexity and prohibitively high projected costs.’
‘In December last year Council had to abandon a grant application for the Mullum to Byron section, of the rail corridor because of the complexities of land tenure and uncertainties about the physical possibility of building a multi-use option along this section,’ he said.
Under Cr Pugh’s new motion, Council would move ahead with the planning, design and construction of a rail trail on the existing rail formation for the entire length of the corridor within the Byron Shire, including the Mullumbimby to Byron section (acknowledging the existing lease held by the Byron Solar Train).
Council’s general manager would be directed to prepare a revised, shovel-ready grant application for the Mullumbimby to Byron Bay section to be submitted to the next available state or federal regional infrastructure funding rounds.
Environmental hurdles
While this would undoubtedly move the project forward, it is increasingly emerging that any plan to use the rail corridor will need to overcome some significant environmental hurdles.
With councillors seemingly unwilling to take meaningful action on the rail trail over the past decade due to the contentious nature of the issue, nature has taken over large sections of the track, and it is now home to multiple endangered ecological communities.
The publication of a long-awaited flora survey of the rail corridor reveals that there are eight such communities within the corridor.
There are also 312 different varieties of native species including four that are listed as threatened species under state and federal legislation.
The survey, which was based on the premise that Council wanted to undertake a rail-with-trail use of the corridor, includes suggested measures to ‘avoid, minimise and manage’ the impacts to the vegetation and habitats, should any project go ahead.
However, Council staff note that the presence of the threatened species and ecological communities makes the planning process for any major project in the corridor more complex and requiring ‘costly biodiversity offsets’.
Crucially, staff note that Council’s previously decades-long focus on a rail-with-trail option has added to the complexity and cost of the project.
The matter will come before this Thursday’s ordinary Council meeting for debate.
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