Dear Train supporters,
Thank you for supporting this petition showing your conviction on this critical issue affecting New Eng land, border communities, our two council areas and beyond.
We need only t
600 more supporters to reach the 6000 goal. Please encourage others who want to save our railway line from planned destruction by well healed Armidale and Glen Innes councils with 58 percent rate rise. Added to this, millions more are expected to flow to Armidale Regional council from community benefit contributions made by renewable energy production and battery storage companies. Keep an eye on how the ARC manages the proposed Future Fund and the process to be used to distribute earnings from investing these millions for community benefit projects? There is draft Terms of Reference for Board of guardians on display for public comment until the end of June. Look at have your say pages in ARC website for details.
I shared a pictorial representation of the consequences from the rail trail in social media recently. It is similar to the inage in this post by New England Network. In response, Scott Ludwig shared a post titled Mythbusting in several face book pages. I replied him( see below).
Scott was active in the have your say blog during the recent community consultations by Armidale council regarding its rail trail plan. He was defending the plan. Q.is he a council staffer? And employees of Public Works? Or office holder in NERT? He claims ARC has 21 million in grants with the backing of both levels of govt.
Look at his Mythvusting post in Wallangarra Jennings Community Facebook book page. Earlier he shared it in Thumbs up thumbs down fb page. It has been removed by administrator after train supporters started posting comments. But my post with pictorial representation still remains.
Copy of my response to Scott's Myth busting post in Wallangarra Jennings Community Facebook page goven below:
Dismantling the Myths?
Siri Gamage response to Scott Ludwig in face book
The rail trail proposal will dismantle the railway line. That is the fundamental reality.
Who commissioned the Jetty Research survey, and how much was paid for it? A far more meaningful measure of public opinion is the petition signed by 10,740 people and presented to the NSW Parliament in 2024, calling for the restoration of passenger rail services from Armidale to Jennings/Wallangarra. In addition, my own petition opposing the rail trail proposal has attracted more than 5,200 signatures.
Surveys conducted in Glen Innes indicated that more than 90% of respondents preferred the return of rail services rather than a rail trail.
Did Armidale Regional Council allocate approximately $2 million of ratepayers' money toward planning for the rail trail? How many more millions of dollars of ratepayer funds will be spent on what many residents regard as a "fail trail"?
Can the Council provide evidence that it has secured the frequently cited $21 million in government funding? What is publicly known is that in 2024 the NSW Government withdrew a $5.4 million grant after Council was unable to secure the full funding required for the project.
Once the rail corridor becomes Council's responsibility, ongoing maintenance costs will also become Council's responsibility. What evidence is there that the rail trail will generate sufficient revenue to cover these costs? Councils do not receive direct income simply because people use a trail.
The economic modelling also raises questions. Why are the projected overnight visitor numbers estimated to be around 11,000 higher than the number of day visitors? It appears the modelling assumes that visiting cyclists will be more interested in overnight stays than actually riding the trail.
Furthermore, the projected annual economic benefits appear to exceed those achieved by the much-publicised Tweed Valley Rail Trail. Is this realistic given that the New England region experiences a cooler climate for much of the year?
If the rail trail is expected to attract 20,000 visitors annually, why are these visitors not already flocking to existing attractions such as Armidale, Guyra, Ebor, the Blue Hole, Dumaresq Dam Picnic Area, and the region's existing cycling trails? There are already several cycling opportunities available in the area.
Finally, has Council obtained an independent cost estimate for the proposed rail-with-trail or "win-win" alternative? If not, on what basis has this option been dismissed? Transport engineers and other qualified professionals should be allowed to undertake an objective assessment of all options. The public is more likely to trust an independent professional evaluation than advocacy or promotional material supporting a predetermined outcome.