Saturday's excellent and successful rally under this title attracted many hundreds to Civic Park in Newcastle despite rain and track work across 300 kilometres of Newcastle rail catchment.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That put us on crowded slow and nauseating buses for well over an hour longer than the train would have taken.
Developers want the rail closed by Christmas because they truly imagine that the more we all lose, the more they surely will gain.
Yes, it’s crazy because it removes their business market as well as our way of life, and the benefits of sea air for us and our children. It is grasping, and mistaken.
It’s crazy too because Newcastle is buzzing. The ‘revitalisation’ notion is rubbish. The present life and colour won’t move to the backblocks just because developers kill the east. Newcastle would die, and the damage could never be undone. Talk of dog in the manger.
Just as crazy, train removal closes Railway Street, dividing extensive built up areas in Wickham and Hamilton.
The present rail divides nothing much, blocks no views, and there are quite sufficient crossings for the narrow strip.
Again, the spin is rubbish, don’t believe it. Go there for yourself and see if you doubt me. If you don’t, you may miss out forever.
The grand plan takes the plum out of the city cake. First victim, New Year’s Eve.
Then, January’s long Asian Cup, not to mention surf festivals, fun runs, and all the other crowd pullers in the east.
Lost without a chance of starting, would be thousands of jobs in tourism, and all the income from that.
What are they after? Can you imagine tenants of the Toaster-on-Track providing the same market for Hunter Street that we can, our regional million from Hunter, Sydney and Central Coast?
Yes, Sydney; it has no train to the beach.
Thousands come up to Newcastle for a day out.
If you drive and don’t care about others, just think of the crowded highways, and the search for a Newcastle car park.
If you fish, talk to the Shooters and Fishers. I saw happy fishermen all along the harbourside on Saturday. The Christian Democrats may listen.
Most importantly we need to ensure that MP Robyn Parker knows the consequences of this plot against us, the owners of the railway. For all of us, talk to them in whatever way you can. And that will make a difference.
