Support for rail in the Byron Shire is ideologically driven wishful thinking and sadly no amount of rational debate will reveal to these supporters the futility of their mission.
All the evidence presented so far – from the parliamentary reports detailing the extent of deterioration in the century-old timber infrastructure and the cost of replacement or repair, to the decline in demand for rail services and the availability of alternative transport – means nothing to these rusted-on supporters.
The rail infrastructure is so badly degraded it’s uneconomical to replace or repair, that’s the official position of experts and professionals in the field, and it’s the basis of decisions by bureaucrats and politicians who decided to end rail services here 22 years ago, for logical, rational reasons grounded in real world evidence.
Even today, if you want credible, verifiable, and irrefutable evidence about the demand, profitability, and viability of returning rail service to the Byron Shire, just ask the Byron Bay Railroad Company which operates the Byron Solar Train, an adorable and environmentally friendly service that has been running for several years now. They’d have a ton of data.
Trains are a superior form of transport under several specific circumstances, none of which apply in our shire. Sadly, these rigid rail supporters will never understand or accept this fact, but will instead continue to belittle and obstruct the only feasible alternative use for the abandoned rail corridor.
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. 
