Rebellion over Newcastle rail closure

Save Our Rail were out in strength at the Newcastle May Day parade. Photo: John Sutton.

The Minister massaged this highly unpopular decision through the Lower Hunter Transport Working Group, which he appointed.

The Working Group received 360 submissions and 'consulted stakeholders', but did not publish any of these proceedings. Its three reports concluded that the line should close, and that a study of the transport impacts should be done later! Since its final report included sketches of possible developments on the railway land, critics concluded that it was simply a developers land grab.

The Independent Mayor of Newcastle and the Secretary of the Newcastle Trades Hall Council were both appointed to the Working Group, but not representing their organisations. Their support for the closure - as individuals - has helped the Minister to neutralise two of the most important citizen voices in the city.

The rail services that would be cut are:

• Diesel railcars from Maitland, the Lower North Coast and Hunter Valley;
• Electric trains from Sydney, the Central Coast and Lake Macquarie.

The key problems in closing the rail service from Broadmeadow to Newcastle are:

• The detour of bus services through Broadmeadow adds 2.2 kilometres to the trip from Maitland to Newcastle;
• Getting off the train at Broadmeadow and taking a bus adds 12-15 minutes to a train trip that is now 35-40 minutes;
• The inconvenience of the interchange will reduce the use of the Broadmeadow - Maitland - Lake Macquarie service;
• Cutting off the rail link into Newcastle CBD also forces more use of cars on the residents of newly developing suburbs near the Cardiff and Cockle Creek stations.

The Working Group dumped the very expensive Woodville Junction interchange, and dumped the use of the rail corridor for dedicated bus services.

The economics in the Working Group reports indicate that the Broadmeadow interchange option is more expensive than the existing service, even after allowing for the sale of surplus railway land and allowing for the lower operating costs of buses compared to trains.

Newcastle City Council voted twice, unanimously, to support the train service. Its Planning Department said in July 2004 that closing the rail link would make the city less accessible, erode its role as the primary regional centre and compromise the 'revitalisation' which all agree is required in Newcastle. They argued that the level crossings required to link the CBD to the Hunter River by road could be fixed without closing the line.

They point out that there is not enough land at Broadmeadow Station for an adequate bus interchange, and that it will cost $125 million.

The only serious studies of the issue in recent years were by Sinclair Knight Mertz in 2001, and the SGS/Maunsell in 2002. Sinclair Knight Mertz proposed a large transport interchange at Woodville Junction, near Broadmeadow, and buses from there would use the rail corridor into Newcastle. SGS/Maunsell warned that:

• interchanges away from a commercial centre become 'unattractive and unsafe';
• bus route diversions to the interchange would inconvenience the majority of bus passengers;
• the trip from the interchange to the commercial centre is often the third trip for users, and very unattractive.

The Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources is now looking at the closure in the context of a broader regional planning exercise, which may yet allow the decision to be reversed. Minister Costa has, however, commissioned an economic impact study by GHD, with a narrow brief. A complete benefit / cost analysis is yet to be done.

As the editor of Railway Digest commented in December 2004: "One of the things that will puzzle historians of this era will be how the ungrateful populace of the Lower Hunter voted out the sitting Labor members and consigned such far-sighted urban planning to the dustbin of history".

Source: Source: Railway Digest, December 2004