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Trains Return to Byron Bay

Friday 23rd of February: After a gap of over two years, two green trains pulled into Byron Bay station and they were both on time too! Whistles blew, crowds came to meet them, and celebrated on the platform. The trains were built by members of the Byron Ballina Greens to highlight, as the election approaches, that the community want the Casino to Murwillumbah railway back and running.

Present were: John Kaye, NSW state upper house candidate, John Bailey, Greens candidate for the seat of Ballina, Karin Kolbe from TOOT (Trains on our Tracks), Andy Gough Greens Candidate for Lismore, Byron Mayor Jan Barham, Councillor John Lazarus and other distinguished guests.

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John bailey Audio   John Kaye Audio   Andy Gough Audio   TOOT Audio

 

John Bailey complimented TOOT on their hard work and success in getting their message through. The ALP are not going to put money into the train, they have been up infront saying so. The National Party have promised 100 million dollars for the train over four years. This is highly unlikely to happen because, when the State Premier challenged them by saying: "You are spending already with your promises 29 billion dollars, how is the train going to be paid for?" The Coalition leader Peter Debnam said it will be paid for by sacking 20,000 public servants! Now everyone knows you can't sack 20,000 public servants without a huge redundancy payout, and in no way would it pay for the 29 billion. If the coalition were elected it is highly unlikely they would honour their promise to re-open the railway." John said.

John continued: "The best option is, for a Green candidate to be elected in this electorate and enough green candidates to get in around the state. This together with progressive independents being elected around the state would put enough pressure on the government to put the money in and do what is necessary. Voting Green is the only way to reopen the railway line. ''

John Kaye believes that the train issue has reached a critical mass in politics and he is confident we will see real trains on the tracks again.

John Kaye thanked all the local Greens who got the(green) train together for today. "If the Greens can pull together two trains for today then surely the state government can pull together two trains to run on these tracks." John complimented TOOT for doing such a god job.

John continued: "The message we are taking today to the parties which are dominated by Sydney is this.
We are standing in the area with the greatest population growth in NSW and the eastern seaboard of Australia.
We are standing in an area which is suffering from increasing motor vehicle congestion.
We are standing in an area where there is a booming tourist industry.
We are standing in a continent which is shortly going to be afflicted by rising oil prices.

It is not beyond reason that in the next 5 years we will see petrol prices of $10 per litre with huge consequences for those living on the North Coast and throughout rural and regional NSW. We live in a state which is one of the worlds worst polluters in terms of green house gas emissions. Our motor transport system produces 22 million tons of CO2 every year. All this leads to the conclusion that we must reopen this railway line." View John Kaye Video

Clash of Ideologies.

John continued:"At first you think you are looking at a battle between the people and Michael Costa, the community versus treasury, but it isn't really, it is a clash of ideologies. It is a clash between those who call themselves economic rationalists (but they are not, they are irrational) and those who stand for the community. Those who call themselves economic rationalists (market fundamentalists) say there is no service the government is running which should not make a financial return for the government, (meaning unless it is showing a profit)."

"What The Greens and the community and TOOT say is: That's fine, but lets have a look at all the costs, lets really measure all the costs of not having this railway line open. Lets have a look at what it will mean for this community when oil prices go up. What it will mean in terms of social isolation, economic down-turn, in terms of rising food prices, in terms of genuine hardship and deprivation. Whereas the benefit of having this railway line open means we can insulate ourselves against the worst aspects of all this."

The high cost of not opening the railway line.

"Lets have a look at the costs of not opening this railway line: That 22 million tons of CO2 (by Sir Nicholas Stern's calculations) is worth 22 billion dollars. 22 billion dollars in financial cost to our economy over the next few years. 22 billion to not re-open the railway line vs millions to reopen it. If you were really being economically rational about it you would re-open the railway line."

There is a silver lining in every cloud.

"Sure we have lost the XPT service and sure these lines are at risk, but the reality is they have caused us all to look at these lines again. TOOT has come up with what I think is a very sensible plan, putting commuter/motor-rail services on this line. I am old enough to remember the surf train and the enormous benefits to people in Lismore. The idea that people can get very rapidly from Byron to Lismore to get to the Lismore Base Hospital, that people in Casino can come down to the coast for a surf, and that tourists can get onto what is one of the world's most spectacular railway lines. The value added for our economy is enormous. But the second and most important part of TOOT's plan is to start connecting this railway line with the SE Queensland railway line. The economic benefits for NSW alone of this plan are enormous, As the road system in SE Queensland chokes up, the ability to export goods into SEQ and to Brisbane will add hundreds of thousands of jobs in the long run, benefiting the economy of NSW."

 

Young people are being seriously disadvantaged by the lack of a rail system.

Andy Gough said: "Young people are being seriously disadvantaged by the lack of a rail system. The electorate I am seeking to represent is very big. There are so many people in that electorate who are really struggling.
They are struggling to get to Centerlink.
They are struggling to get to jobs.
They are struggling to get to job interviews.
The public transport system, with buses is unreliable, the solution as far as the NSW government is concerned is hitchhiking."

"We have seen an enormous number of accidents on the roads and deaths of our young people because there is insufficient public transport in this area. Young people are piling into cars with a young and very inexperienced driver behind the wheel to go out for a social evening."

Having fun is one of the reasons why the TOOT campaign is growing and will get even stronger.

Karin Kolbe said; "I can't tell you how much my phone is ringing from people who I have never heard from before saying "How can I help? What can I do?". More and more people are coming out of the woodwork. People say: "But the train line has been closed for 2 years." I say: "That's nothing in rail terms. with rail you have to have a long term vision. My father is a geologist, so I have grown up with long terms. He thinks millions of years are a short time. So for rail we have to think a little bit like that. Its a bit like the greens approach to thinking about the planet. So two years in rail history is really not a lot. This line has been here for over a hundred years, so its not going to go away just like that. And with the support of people like you and across this region, we are definitely going to bring the rail back. So I thank the greens and many more supporters."

The Rail link to Queensland really captures people's imagination, both young and old.

Karin continued: "I have been going around giving presentations to groups like Probus Groups, bowling club groups etc. I ask people "Would you like to catch a commuter Rail service?" Even people who live in Alstonville and Ballina put up their hand and say that would be a useful thing. "I could pop up to Murwillumbah or Lismore." And then I say "Would you like to be able to catch a train through to the Gold Coast or Brisbane ?" They all say "YEAH!!. When can we have it?" We'll organize our groups along there. Sporting clubs bowling clubs would love to play up on the Gold Coast . That's what we want to be able to do."

"I agree with John Bailey that we have to look at the political realities and that is why TOOT sees a role for itself no matter who wins this election, because no matter who wins we need to be there to insure that we do get our trains on our tracks"