The people of Gyra are faced with the same degenerate issue we of the Northern Rivers faced when we lost, firstly our freight train from Sydney to Murwillumbah, two-and-a-half years prior to the passenger XPT service in 2004.
Our branch line from Casino to Murwillumbah is 130km. It could have been used as a rail passenger service but not all of it can now. Two parts of the rail corridor have had the rail lines ripped up for bike tracks – state fully-funded.
Yes. your tax dollars – for some people to be able to ride their push bikes. When I read that the same thing was happening to the Great Northern Railway, it made me write this letter.
We tried to stop this happening to our branch line and corridor, but Bob Carr as premier and Michael Costa as transport minister stopped our train at Casino and people who have to travel further north have to get on a Queensland Co bus, right up to the Gold Coast.
So keep up the fight, Gyra to Armidale. Keep your branch line open to rail because when it’s gone, it’s gone folks.
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. 
