My Welcome Post to New Members -Trains back to Guyra and Glen Innes Face book page/group

Welcome to our growing community of rail supporters!

On behalf of the thousands of New England residents who have endured more than 30 years without proper rail services, I warmly welcome our new members.

Successive Coalition and Labor governments have failed to restore the railway connecting New England with Queensland or provide faster and better train services to Sydney. Our campaign continues because regional communities deserve transport equity.

This morning I approved a number of membership requests and declined others because the four membership questions were not answered.

A special welcome to Izzy, a University of New England student who is planning to produce a documentary about our campaign. We look forward to working with her and wish her every success.
We are now waiting for Armidale Regional Council to release the community consultation report on its proposal to remove the existing railway and build a rail trail. The Mayor and General Manager have stated that 85% of respondents support the proposal. The community deserves to see how this figure was reached.

To ensure transparency and public confidence, the Council should release the consultation methodology and de-identified primary data so residents can understand who was consulted, what questions were asked and how the results were analysed. This is particularly important given that the Mayor is also a member of Friends of New England Rail Trail Inc., the organisation promoting the rail trail.
Community concern is growing following Council's decision to allocate around $2 million for preliminary rail trail planning.

Many new members have expressed interest in meeting regularly. We already have:
Glen Innes: Fortnightly on Thursdays at 6.00 pm, New England Hotel (contact Julie Teal).
Tenterfield: Monthly at the Royal Hotel (contact Phyllis Jones).
If someone is willing to coordinate meetings in Armidale, Guyra or another town, we would be delighted to help get them started.

Many of us spent countless hours last year and this year preparing submissions on the New England North West Strategic Regional Integrated Transport Plan after being assured that all transport options would be considered. It was therefore disappointing that the draft plan contains no commitment to restoring train services to Glen Innes and Tenterfield. We have made further submissions and hope the final plan will be improved.

Despite a transport budget exceeding $55 billion, only a small share is invested in regional public transport. That is simply not good enough.

There are encouraging signs. Our campaign continues to grow, more people are becoming involved and community awareness is increasing. While we welcome the NSW Government's investment in refurbishing trains in the Hunter, regional communities will not benefit unless government also invests in rebuilding the Country Rail Network(CRN).

We dream of the day when people in New England can once again catch a train, just as people in Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong do.

Transport justice is not achieved through announcements or social media posts. It requires real investment, real commitment and real action.

Thank you for standing with us. Together, our voices are becoming stronger. We appeal to our two MPs and aspiring candidates in the March State election to contact us to offer their support to this worthy cause.

My Welcome Post in Trains Back to Guyra and Glen Innes FB Page:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1118628708853114

My U tube Video:   Trains on Northern Line (Armidale to Qld border)    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtgC1Rto5x0&t=72s

Trials and Tribulations of Re-opening the train line from Armidale to Queensland -Update