Local residents took part in a rally last Wednesday in Newcastle to protest against the proposed closure on Christmas Day which will see passengers forced to use buses at Hamilton or Broadmeadow. 

Numerous concerns are being voiced on the planned truncation of the line and the implementation of light rail in a bid to convince the State Government that they should re-consider the decision and listen to the arguments of the opposing people. 

A petition of 11,000 was submitted to parliament and petitions continue.  

Many people in opposition are part of the Save Our Rail campaign group of which Scone’s Bev Atkinson is a keen advocate for. 

Ms Atkinson believes that yes, Newcastle is in trouble, but so are we in the Upper Hunter. 

This is what she said:

As Fred Gardiner and I walked by the Harbour to Nobbys we met Shane Forrest from Muswellbrook. 

He is a truck driver.

He brings his surfboard or bike by train to Newcastle beach whenever he can; the most beautiful place to exercise. 

He couldn’t get his equipment on a bus and nor would he; the rail journey into the great station near the beach is a key part of his recreation. 

He dreads rail closure Boxing Day this year. He would not be back, he says.   

Shane’s first independence from home as a youth was the beach journey by rail. 

He saw on that train trip a young family; the little boy very excited by being on a train, and with the prospect of building sand castles. Shane never forgot that first introduction.

I moved to the Hunter because of the rail.  The special magic of this rail is its easy beach connection. On my journeys to Sydney, I go to the beaches between trains; it refreshes the soul.  If anyone will bother to change to a bus at Wickham, it won’t be me.  A tram won’t help. There are many like us, aghast that the long laid and evil plot is succeeding.

People who have trusted the government at all levels, all their lives, may find it irritating that troublemakers see corruption behind official plans which must surely be just fine for us all.  

These plans come from our public service; they have been drawn up, and confidently announced by elected people.  Surely it’s all ok.

But there are no other theories left.  

The plans for Newcastle’s rail closure clearly break all common sense principles of urban design, and of transport planning. They improve nothing. 

If state planners cared about our access to water, they would not bar our only direct access to the Pacific Ocean. 

Our inland towns are the ones most affected, losing our direct access to our only beach.

But they didn’t ask us. Even with computers, who of us will search    websites without knowing there is something up?      

At first, government only consulted Newcastle!  But it needs the train far less than we do. 

Our inland shires, and we through them, should have been fully informed and involved in consultation all along.     

No child would believe that taking out NSW’s one ocean railway will ‘revitalise’ anything.  

Only Sydney would try to kid regional people that a tram gives glamour and fortune.

 Recent reports tell us that Hunter and Central Coast have bad heart health; and a great need for preventative health activities. 

It is the Hunter and Central Coast which stand to lose this healthy, free, open air family playground: Newcastle beach by rail.

The Minister for Transport admits that rail closure doesn’t help transport. Why does she hide behind its supposedly being an urban planning decision?  Surely she should just refuse it on transport grounds; she has the power!   

The planners have never been on the train.

So you see that there has to be some heavy pressure on these            planners and politicians, since they have broken all the ‘urban planning principles’ they profess to uphold.

Save Our Rail started decades ago when people saw this coming.  

Sudden recent ‘consultations’ have no credibility.   

Much is coming out now about developers’ ambitions for the rail line.   

Their plots over 30 years constitute theft of public asset.

But we can plug in to Save Our Rail in Maitland or Newcastle and insist on saving our beautiful way of life with the rail to the beach.  

We can contact at least Minister Berejiklian and the Premier.  

We need to connect with our fellow towns, and prevent extreme waste of funds on this pointless, depressing destruction.    

Some people would like a local group to form in all the towns on the four lines affected including Scone, Dungog, Paterson, Wyong, Morisset, Aberdeen, Hexham and Singleton.  

We need to join MP Mehreen Faruqi in asking NSW to pull out of ‘controversial’ projects at least until probity and integrity are in the ascendancy once more.  

If we care about our families’ future health and delight, and about the future of a magnificent emerging World City, we need to be creative.  

Here’s where to start:  Go on the train and enjoy Newcastle.

Comments are needed on the Transport Interchange at Wickham by midnight this Saturday, to projects@transport.nsw.gov.au.