Chairman of Well-Being Australia, Mark Tronson (the Footplate Padre) says that it is uncertain if the new Premier, Kristina Keneally, will uphold these promises.
The following projects were listed as part of this plan:
• A Western Metro from Westmead to the city, boosting Parramatta as Sydney's second major employment hub.
• A metro to the south-eastern suburbs of Randwick, Kensington, the UNSW, Kingsford and Maroubra.
• A heavy rail link to the Hills District in the north-west.
• The completion of the "missing" rail link between Parramatta and Epping.
• A metro from Olympic Park to Hurstville.
• A CityRail ''CBD relief line'' under the city.
• ''Radial transport links'' into Parramatta.
Astonishing as it may seem, there is not a country rail line in sight in the list published. The fastest growing regional area of the State, the north coast where it is estimated there will be 75,000 more people over the next fifteen years, didn't get a mention. The Casino to Byron Bay to Murwillumbah line that was closed some years ago was absent from this impressive list of city proposed improvements.
M V Tronson is a commentator on all things rail. As well as being the Footplate Padre, he is a former engineman and has written 16 books on railways, and he claims that in time to come, a surprising number of rural rail lines that had been closed in years past will be reopened and at an enormous cost.
One of the interesting aspects of Victorian Railways is that although some rural rail lines have been closed, a legal right on the railway reserve has been retained. This wise policy gives Victorian Railways an opportunity in the future to reopen such lines. One of these railways reserve lines in rural Victoria, Mark Tronson visited last November, was the Springhurst to Rutherglen to Wahgunyah which is being preserved by the Stringbark Express Museum and Heritage Park association.
"It is all there," he observed, "Should this line be required in the future, the railway reserve has been maintained and the cost to revamp the entire section of railway would not be prohibitive."
There are real concerns in New South Wales that these same forward thinking policies are not being applied across the board and this north coast line is one that is creating grave concern in the region. For the heavy load railway that will be required for this north coast section of line, numerous bridges will need to be revamped or replaced, and much of the per-way will need to be realigned for high speed inter-urban trains.
There is even some thought that a totally new railway line will need to run directly north along the coastline from Brunswick Heads to Kingscliff and onto the Gold Coast Airport in Queensland. The Murrwillumbah section will function like a giant loop to cater for this population growth.
Queensland rail have their Gold Coast line down with the Robina to Varsity Lakes section almost complete and the next section of line is to run to the Gold Coast airport. At the last Kingscliff Chamber of Commerce meeting, the north coast Export Hub representative John Murray, told members of the millions upon millions of dollars worth of produce that is being exported from this region, and it's all going by road.
"The question for many who have an interest in railways, is whether the new premier has a wider vision than the city rail network." M V Tronson mused.