Save Our Rail NSW Inc.

The NSW government decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars of public funds on a Newcastle light rail line without a business case and without consulting the community, the Newcastle Herald reports: That is one of the extraordinary findings of a NSW Auditor-General’s report released on Wednesday into the government’s Revitalising Newcastle program.The report ...

SAVE OUR RAIL INCORPORATED SUBMISSION 20-10-2017 NEWCASTLE CITY COUNCIL PLANNING PROPOSAL PP2016 / 00004 REZONING TRANSPORT CORRIDOR Save Our Rail urges councillors to reject this Development Application requiring the rezoning of Newcastle’s transport corridor.  It is the group’s firm belief that cities need direct transport to bring people to them as well as systems that ...

Newcastle-based planner and urban designer Stacey Brodbeck writes in her Newcastle Herald opinion piece: … Sometimes it doesn’t matter how many try and point out the shortcomings of a shiny government project – those that hold the power usually get their way. Yet sometimes time reveals the truth – and those that choose to ignore a tsunami ...

Read our submission to the NSW Upper House Inquiry Into Crown Land (PDF file here). Save Our Rail recommends that rather than changes which allow greater flexibility and loss of public amenity the laws pertaining to the Crown Lands Act 1989 need to be tightened and more strictly adhered to. There seems to be a ...

Keep Rail on the Corridor (KROC) is an alliance of Hunter Valley and Newcastle Community Groups and their submission the NSW Upper House Inquiry into Crown Land is complementary to the Save Our Rail submission. Read the KROC submission at the NSW Upper House Inquiry website. Keep Rail On the Corridor (KROC) supports improved legislation, ...

A summary of SOR’s submission to the Newcastle Light Rail REF is given below. The full SOR submission can be found here (PDF document). The Newcastle Herald is maintaining a list of submission on its website. Transport needs were identified by Save Our Rail at workshops in 5 locations prior to writing major submissions on ...

Read some of the submissions made to the light rail project at the Newcastle Herald.

HUNTER Street retailers were considering a class action against the state government if the proposed Hunter Street light rail damaged their businesses, government representatives were told at a meeting in Newcastle on Monday, as reported in the Newcastle Herald. More than 30 business owners or their representatives crowded into a room at Passmores’ Business and ...

RUNNING light rail down Hunter Street would “drive a stake through the heart of Newcastle”, an alliance of community groups including Save Our Rail has heard, reports the Newcastle Herald. More than 300 people packed Newcastle Leagues Club on Monday night as opponents to the state government’s light rail plan vowed to “embarrass” Premier Mike Baird in ...

Apologies for another light rail column, but I can’t escape the feeling we may be sleepwalking into a planning disaster, and I don’t want to have to say “I did nothing” if someone comes up to me in 20 years time and asks me how all of this happened, writes Ian Kirkwood at the Newcastle ...

In June 2013, Cr McCloy – as he was then – wanted light rail running down Hunter Street, reports the Newcastle Herald. Now there was money to pay for it, the lord mayor was adamant that light rail “must” run down Hunter Street. Now however, Mr McCloy has a dramatically different view, saying the government’s plan is “a recipe ...

AT least 500 people attended a pro-rail rally at Civic on Sunday morning, timed to highlight concern over the Baird government’s likely push this week to pass rail-closing legislation, reports the Newcastle Herald. The rally began at the closed Civic railway station… The list of a dozen or so speakers included Greens MLC and transport ...

An alliance of community groups, residents and students opposed to the privatisation and sale of Newcastle’s rail corridor will hold a rally at Civic Station this Sunday from 11am. The Maitland Mercury reports that the University of Newcastle Student Union Association will participate in the rally which will take a broader stance than Save Our ...

Keep rail on the the corridor! Who benefits? Who pays?  

The state government may not have secured the support of two upper house MPs who will hold the balance of power in a crucial vote on the future of Newcastle’s heavy rail line, reports the Maitland Mercury. … The vote had been expected to take place on Tuesday, but did not eventuate. … “We think ...

Objectors to the state ­government’s plan to cut Newcastle’s heavy rail line say they want to explain to two MPs, who will be crucial in a vote on the rail’s future next week, how the truncation will affect commuters in Maitland, reports the Maitland Mercury. … Labor, the Greens and the Christian Democratic Party have ...