An old railway corridor in northern NSW is set to be turned into a multimillion-dollar bike and walking path to attract high-spending tourists amid furious debate across regional NSW over what to do with disused railway lines.
At a heated meeting last Monday night, Armidale Regional Council voted 6-4 to proceed with plans to build the first part of a 103-kilometre “rail trail” between Armidale and Glen Innes, using the old Great Northern Railway corridor.
A rail trail between Armidale and Glen Innes would be one of the most elevated in Australia.Credit: Peter Egener
The full rail trail, once built, would run along the spine of the New England mountain range and would be one of the most elevated cycling paths in Australia.
But it will likely result in removal of the railway track, which will hamper efforts to get trains running again between Armidale and the Queensland border.
It has been 35 years since the last northbound train pulled out of Armidale, and the cost of restoring the line has been estimated at up to $2 billion.
New England Rail Trail chairman David Mills welcomed the council’s decision to move ahead with the project and build a nine-kilometre section between Armidale and the village of Dumaresq, saying the local economy needed the boost. But he said the debate and efforts to stop the rail trail had left him deflated.
The old railway station at Guyra, between Armidale and Glen Innes.Credit: Peter Egener
“There was a lot of anger in the room [on Monday], and it’s been a hard fight … but this was always about an opportunity to improve an abandoned asset,” he said.
“It’s similar in a lot of regions. The train lobby group are quite passionate, yet they’ve really got to understand that regional transport, as far as trains from Armidale to Tamworth, they do have low patronage.
“[The corridor is] the people of NSW’s infrastructure, and the fact is nothing will ever operate on these train lines again in their current state.
“We really need tourism in these areas, and that’s what this project is about.”
Part of the Great Northern Railway corridor, north of Armidale, which last saw a passenger train 35 years ago.Credit: Peter Egener
Regional councils across NSW are grappling with how to manage competing interests for old railway lines, after the state government passed legislation in 2022 to make it easier to close old lines and convert them into rail trails. So far, trails have opened in the Northern Rivers and Riverina areas of NSW.
Rail trail proponents say the projects will draw high-spending cycling tourists and will revitalise regional economies. But train enthusiasts say lines should be preserved to improve public transport options for those living outside of Sydney, and to allow for freight movement or heritage train services.
More than 10,000 people signed a petition presented to state parliament in February calling on the government to put trains back on the line running north of Armidale to the border, and on to Brisbane.
Regional Transport Minister Jenny Aitchison said she hoped to revitalise transport in regional centres, but did not address the likelihood of restoring the rail service north of Armidale.
Cyclists ride the Tweed section of the Northern Rivers Rail Trail.
Train advocacy group Trains North, which organised the petition, said preserving the rail line for passenger, heritage and freight services would help Armidale grow because it would better connect the city with Queensland.
“[The council] are pushing this one use of the rail corridor at the exclusion of all others,” vice-president Siri Gamage said of the rail trail. He hopes local government elections in September will change the course of the project.
Two weeks ago, Armidale Regional Council voted to delay the rail trail project to address concerns about maintenance costs, which would be transferred from the state-owned Transport Asset Holding Entity to the council once it signed a lease for the rail corridor to build the rail trail.
But councillors received a flood of emails from residents regarding the project, and it was put back on the agenda for Monday, amid fears council would lose a federal grant worth $5.41 million if it did not start the trail soon.
The meeting was told local businesses had also offered to help cover maintenance costs of the first section of trail.
Building the longer trail from Armidale to Ben Lomond, at the edge of Armidale’s jurisdiction, is expected to cost the council $21 million - money it hopes to raise through more government grants.
It expects the trail would attract 20,000 tourists and a similar number of locals, and boost the local economy by about $6 million each year.
The council has also agreed to investigate building the trail next to the track to Dumaresq, or storing the track, to keep alive hopes for a train service running again to Queensland.
It will now start work on securing state government approval for the rail trail ahead of its expected opening next year, and will also discuss with the state government how to improve public transport options to better link Armidale with its satellite towns and with Brisbane.
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