FROM FACEBOOK: Call to Clear Up Confusion on Northern Rivers Rail Trail

  • Post category:Byron Bay
Photo: Northern Rivers Rail Trail Inc.

VOICE of BYRON regular, Beth Shelley, shared this information in order to clear up confusion about New South Wales rail corridors in general, and the Northern Rivers Rail Trail in particular. 

Beth says, “This confusion still needs clearing up.

“I heard ex-Lismore mayor Jenny Dowell on the radio last week saying the Rail Trail would protect the corridor. Maybe Jenny has trusted someone who’s given her incorrect information.

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“The current rail trail proposal concerns ripping up the railway tracks to have a bike path so its necessary to pass an act of parliament closing the railway line.

“This is the only protection our rail corridor has. Rail trail legislation has to go through parliament for the rail line to be closed.

“The land would then become Crown reserve and no longer protected as a rail corridor.

“If the funding was provided and the legislation goes through for the Murwillumbah Rail Trail proposal of 26 kms, the 130 km Casino to Murwillumbah rail corridor becomes crown land and therefore disposable.

“The government will be able to sell it off.

“As Don Page said in the NS 10/09/2016 (Casino to M’bah rail corridor sell off’ not so far fetched), “You can imagine the pressures the State Government will come under from developers, particularly in Byron Bay…that land is very valuable right in the centre of town”.

“If there is no Rail Trail legislation and no reason to remove the railway tracks then the corridor is safe until we get a sensible government that cares about saving lives on our damaged, congested and unsafe roads.”


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This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Beth Shelley

    Sorry what I didnt explain well is that if the land is no longer Crown land but public land as you say the government can easily sell it to developers. Then it will be gone. We will need trains again one day.

  2. Sarah

    Why can’t there be a creation of a bike path as well as leaving the railway intact?
    The width of the land on which the rails are, is quite substantial.

    1. Tim Shanasy

      Sarah, the width of the rail corridor in most parts is only wide enough for a trail
      Go and have a walk along any accessible stretches to build your knowledge on this subject.
      Yes, the corridor is roughly 30 metres wide, but the actual width of the formation is not much wider than the remaining sleepers.

      1. Ab

        Actually the corridor us about 30 wide in the narrowest parts the rest is plenty wide enough for both. Some parts are 100m wide . Some parts also have reserve roads running alongside the track which could be used for trails. If only the rail trail group were honest about these things…

  3. Tim Shanasy

    Beth Shelley, lovely person as she may be, continues this wanton rant, as though there’s nothing left in the toot barrel.
    The truth is that no train service will be funded.
    The rail corridor must be protected from eventual selloff through the disused state assets path.
    This will secure the corridor in public ownership.
    To do this, the most effective way is to gain government funding via a rail trail to activate the corridor.
    Yes, the law must ve changed to effect this, so Beth, your best move is to get on board with the legal process of this change, to ensure it meets NRRT’s prerequisite of the corridor remaining in public ownership.
    Then in the decades ahead, if our future generations need a train service or whatever, they’ll have the vital corridor within which to build it.
    It’s that simple.
    Get on board or risk losing the corridor completely.

    1. Jillian Spring

      Tim Shanasy, You say – Then in the decades ahead, if our future generations need a train service or whatever, they’ll have the vital corridor within which to build it.
      Hey … what a statement … ‘ ‘if’ our future generations need a train service or whatever,’
      We – ALL AGES! – have NEEDED ‘our’ train service – that never went away – people were just ‘subdued’ – & bullied – ignored – but their voices are coming to life against the wrongs that have been done to them, being treated as of no consequence. Their independence shattered by the ignoring of their telling of their needs of travel not having to rely on family, friends, the community bus situation not meeting the needs of the majority of communities to be able to hop on a train – without having to be ‘in the system’ like the community bus pick-up situation, eg, a sudden decision to go for a ride to Byron, Lismore, Mullum & Bruns, (via a shuttle bus). We constantly hear of depression, well this denying of this available transport is part of that – people denied to make their choice of where they want to go/when they want to go. re RT – there are areas of the rail line where bike tracks could go – but Rail Trail means not just bikes – includes horse riding, people in wheelchairs, mobile scooters & how these are all going to be on the RT together is a question that is ignored! Jillian Spring

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