Dear Supporter of the Northern rail Line,

In view of the impending Legislative Amendment to make way for the construction of New England Rail Trail(Cyce track), Northern Railway Defenders Forum(see Facebook) has organised an epetition in the Legislative Council website.  By now 600 people have signed it.  I encourage those from Neew Southwales, New England/Northern Tablelands (in particular those in the areas  under the Armidale Regional Council (ARC) and Glen Innes Severn Council-GISC) to include your details by accessing the petition site. 

We need hour support now to convince the law makers to carefully examine the future implications of the impending legislative amendment in terms of rail services beyond Armidale to Queenland border.  If the northern line is closed by legislative amendment,  it will be very difficult to get it back - even though the government will promise that the ownership of rail corridor will remain in public hands turning it to crown lands.  The plan seems to be to lease the rail corridor to the two Councils with operational and maintenance responsibility. Currently it is under the Transport NSW and management and maintenance responsibility is given to a private company.  Earlier it was John Holland. This year it has been given to another company.

Currently there are two businesses to be based in Guyra-Blackmountain seeking assurances from the Councils that theese companies can use the rail line for transporting their products.  One company is even willing to redevelop the rail oine from Armidale to Black mountain on at its own cost. You can see the futality of adopting a one track mindset by the Councils. The region will lose such proposals from companies who will generate employment in the region while atracting families to work in the enterprises. Councils seem to be focused on the Rail trail as a tourism project to the exclusion of alternative proposals for the rail line? A tourism project like the rail trail should never drive the nature and direction of public transport?  It should be the otherway. Please support our second petition (Details given below)  at your earliest and ask your friends and family also to support us.

Following is the Link.  Copy and paste it in Google to access the opetition

https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/lc/pages/epetition-details.aspx?q=ahH04qnEvJ11h5OJudqkfw

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - Signing ePetition - Protection of the Main North Railway for use by trains

To sign the ePetition, confirm you are a resident of New South Wales and enter your title, first name and last name. Once you click ‘submit’ you will have signed the ePetition and will be re-directed to the Legislative Council’s ‘ePetitions open for signature’ page.Protection of the Main North Railway for use by trains

Petitioner: Mr Matthew Tierney | Member: Cusack, Catherine | No. of Signatories: 600 | Date closes: 02/05/2022 | Status: Open

To the President and Members of the Legislative Council, the petitioners of the Northern Tablelands of New South Wales state that the main railway line from Werris Creek via Tamworth, Armidale, Glen Innes and Tenterfield to Queensland is of such strategic, economic and social value that this asset must be secured for passenger, freight and tourism rail services which are needed for the growth and development of this region. The petitioners request that the House reject any bill to close any part of the Main North Line from Armidale to Wallangarra and that the House maintain ownership of the line by The Transport Asset Holding Entity with full legal protection of this railway under the Transport Administration Act 1988. 

Information you have to enter in the poetition site:

Confirm  you are a resident of New South Wales by a tick in the box

NameTitle*

First name*

Last Name *

ContactEmail*