TWEED COUNCIL ACCEPTS RAIL TRAIL FUNDING
TWEED Shire Council has voted to accept the $6.5 million Federal funding for the Rail Trail project on the proviso the rail corridor will be preserved in public hands.
Councillors agreed to allow tenders to be called for the project, including alternative tenders to be made for a trail to run beside the existing formation.
Other conditions in the motion include calling for the Crown Land to be kept in public hands, with an Act of Parliament the only way it could be sold off.
The rail trail will happen!
The Rail Trail will be for everyone to use, not just few Lycra clad cyclists! In fact it will be largely families and kids.Propaganda Campaign in full swing!
There has been the usual propaganda campaign with “fake facts” since the rail trail has received government funding, which is disappointing.
The campaign is implying that there is a chance to get the train back now and extend it to the Gold Coast. It could even be solar! This is not the case.
There is no interest from government to reinstate the Casino to Murwillumbah line at this stage. We don’t know what may happen in the future but right now we need to use the corridor or risk it being sold off. Unused assets are very tempting to sell! There is no reason to doubt the community trail will be a success with locals and Queenslanders particularly. Once it extends the whole way to Casino it will be popular with overseas visitors as well.
This is not what our rail corridor looks like! The train supporters have not managed to convince the government to bring back the train in nearly 15 years and it is unlikely to now at this time in history. More and more bridges are being removed and there has been no maintenance beyond the areas around the stations.
Council have already agreed to try and preserve the tracks if possible so we aren’t too sure why the rally?
The main aim is to preserve the corridor which rail trails world wide do. They do this because they are popular with tourists and locals and create economic benefits to the regions they run through.
“There is much fondness for trains which I can understand. I too prefer train travel if possible, but there is much lack of understanding of the engineering reality, the costs and the economics of rail transport. That deficit is replaced by romanticism and yearning to get back to some semblance of ‘the good old days’. The lack of knowledge of rail realities is often matched by a similar lack of knowledge of the growth in cycling, the benefits of modern lightweight and electric boosted gear (both bikes and wheelchairs !) and the potential for walking and cycling and wheelchair tourism that other states are capitalising on.”
Tim Coen – Rail Trails for NSW
If everyone can make a small donation to help keep our organisation running, it would be a great help. We spend money monthly on maintaining the website, mail chimp, facebook, markets, printing, postage and merchandise. We use our own money for travel and petrol and many other incidentals.
We want to try and not eat into the crowd funding money which has been earmarked for the business case.
