The fight will go on to restore heavy rail services into Newcastle for Maitland commuters even if, like in Fremantle, it takes years.
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Hunter Concerned Citizens members said they took heart from the West Australian city’s three-decade battle to preserve its Perth services.
The service was cut in 1979 and restored in 1983, but was only truly safeguarded in 2012 when state and federal governments announced a tunnel to sink the line to open up the CBD above.
The 600-metre tunnel was a political football for 10 years but was completed for $609 million in 2013 and includes an underground bus terminal.
“We won’t be giving up any time soon. It took Fremantle 10 years to get their rail tunnel,” Maitland resident and Hunter Environment Lobby president Jan Davis said.
Hunter Concerned Citizens is an alliance of 16 community groups including the Hunter Environment Lobby, Save Our Rail and the Newcastle Inner City Residents Association.
Members maintain a strong presence at Broadmeadow Station where all services start and stop.
Leaflets call on commuters to contact the Premier Mike Baird to air their dissatisfaction with the Boxing Day truncation.
“We’re going to keep our pressure up on the government,” Ms Davis said.
SOR won a Supreme Court order on Christmas Eve that prevented the state government from tearing up the tracks.
The judge allowed the government to remove associated infrastructure in the interests of safety.
“Save Our Rail is optimistic we will win the appeal,” president Joan Dawson said.
“We will fight on.”
Contractors on the Fremantle tunnel excavated a trench in which a tunnel was formed from steel and concrete.
Finished ahead of schedule in July 2013, the tunnel carries electrified trains below ground while pedestrians can move around more freely in the CBD above.
One of the country’s biggest property developers says a tunnel could preserve Maitland’s rail connection to Newcastle Station.
Stock exchange-listed company and Hunter Mall stakeholder GPT has long supported pulling up the tracks to open up the Newcastle waterfront but has acknowledged that a tunnel could deliver the same benefits.
GPT outlined its position in an email to Lorn resident Francis Young on Christmas Eve based on the 2007 Hornery Institute’s findings.
“The research found reconnecting the CBD back through to the waterfront was a key outcome to deliver revitalisation in Newcastle,” GPT spokesman Tanny Mangos said.
“Whether it is removal or lowering the railway into a tunnel, that is a decision for the government to make.”
But Ms Mangos told the Mercury that GPT would “absolutely not” write a letter to the state government in support of a tunnel.
“Maybe we’ve been used to open the door,” she said.
“Whether the government decides to remove the rail line or sink it is a decision for them.”
