The Lower Hunter’s extraordinary residential and industrial growth has prompted a call for the State to provide more rail transport linking major centres in the region.
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Maitland councillor and Labor mayoral candidate Loretta Baker said unprecedented residential development at Huntlee, Lochinvar, Aberglasslyn and Farley have now set the foundations for a much-needed boost to the area’s public transport sector.
She said rail lines, platforms and in some cases abandoned stations are sitting idle with mainly coal and freight trains the only engines to pass through.
“The highway at Lochinvar is about to become increasingly congested after council signed off recently on 15,000 housing lots there,” Cr Baker said.
“Huntlee is also growing and there is no independence for kids in that area. We can’t continue to be car reliant,” she said.
The 2009 Maitland Integrated Land Use and Transport Study said Maitland’s population and development growth is above the state average.
It also said there were problems with peak traffic and cited no access to rail transport in the Aberglasslyn and Rutherford areas as a concern.
The study forecast future demand for use of Lochinvar Railway Station following the development of the Lochinvar Urban Release Area and said there was no rail transport to our neighbouring city Cessnock.
“Most of the infrastructure to get these stations up and running is already in place and we have to act now, not in 20 years time when we are choking with cars,” Cr Baker said.
“I’m not against development per se but it has to be sustainable and has to be about quality of life and have some alternate modes of transport.”
Cr Baker said she wants to revisit the Integrated Land Use and Transport Study with the help of other levels of government with a particular focus on the rail option.
“I think coal has taken over and passengers have been left out of the equation. This has to be about quality of life, not money. We need to look at the greater Hunter,” Cr Baker said.
She said the proposal is not an election stunt and said she is not shifting from her plan.
Cr Baker’s Labor team has pledged to keep local jobs and oppose privatisation if elected in September. The pledge commits the team to the principals of supporting local jobs and opposing privatisation of public services.
