People of the greater Hunter, your voices are being heard in the halls of Macquarie Street.
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Greens MLC David Shoebridge should have a firm majority this week when he calls for a vote to form a committee to investigate the Newcastle rail cut proposal and other recent planning decisions in the Hunter.
This will be a massive win for commuters from Maitland and the greater Hunter, many of whom want more transparency about how the government came to its decision.
While the committee won’t be able to stop the government from closing the line on Boxing Day, we hope the investigation will put more public pressure on the Coalition to delay work at least until the investigators report their findings early next year.
The Mercury began the Save Hunter Rail campaign last month, calling for the government to take the rail cut proposal to the March election to get a mandate before destroying public transport infrastructure.
The campaign came off the back of many emails being sent in from people who live outside Newcastle and rely on being able to catch a train into the city.
For many, the plan to cut the rail line at Wickham is not political. It’s about quality of life – being able to easily go to the beach, the shops or the specialist.
Since the start of the campaign, their stories and letters have been printed in these pages every day in the hope that the government realises there are more stakeholders in this issue than those who live in Newcastle.
It appears that action is finally being taken and hopefully, this time around, you have a chance to be heard.
But this is no time to rest. Keep those emails and letters coming in to maintain the pressure.