<span class="" id="parent-fieldname-description"> In the absence of my own crystal ball itâs not easy to predict what the rail industry can expect in 2013, but with events towards the end of 2012 combining with an end to much of the funding from the Federal Governmentâs economic stimuli package, I foresee 2013 as being a bit of a rough ride for the industry, writes Mark Carter. </span> <p><!–[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true" DefSemiHidden="true" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99" LatentStyleCount="267"> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="Normal" /> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="false" UnhideWhenUsed="false" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1" /> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2" /> <w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3" /> <w:LsdException Locked="false" 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class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">What is it with Newcastle? Are the people there caught in some endless re-run of Back to the Future? Where in the World in the 21st Century would a major city the size of Newcastle pull out its rail services, even more so when those rail services link it to one of the World’s premier cities</span></p><p style="margin-bottom:12.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">For those that missed it, the NSW Government announced just before Christmas that after several years of speculation it will cut back the heavy rail line into Newcastle back to Wickham and force commuters onto buses to complete the last part of their journey into the CBD.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom:12.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman" mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Property developers and some locals have long been in favour of removal of the rail line from the CBD claiming that it will allow better connections between the city centre and the waterfront </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"mso-ansi-language:EN-US">thereby providing a stronger basis for renewal initiatives.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">The NSW Transport Master Plan that was launched the day before the announcement says, “Fast connections to and through Sydney will be increasingly important to cities such as Newcastle and Wollongong…Better rail connections to Sydney also attract more visitors to these regional cities and their surrounding regions.”</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">Talk about irony?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normalmso-layout-grid-align: nonetext-autospace:none" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif" mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The biggest disappointment has been a total lack of response from the rail industry. Only the day before as part of its Transport Master Plan the NSW Government had come out with its, as yet unfunded, plans for further extensions to Sydney’s Light Rail. The Australasian Railway Association (ARA) was quick to come out in support of this, with a media releases on the same day. </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normalmso-layout-grid-align: nonetext-autospace:none" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif" mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Yet so far on the Newcastle issue we have heard nothing from the ARA, or any of the industry’s other peak bodies, decrying the decision. Even something acknowledging that maybe there has to be change in Newcastle, but that rail should remain an integral part of that change would have helped.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normalmso-layout-grid-align: nonetext-autospace:none" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif" mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"mso-ansi-language:EN-US">I have a colleague who it could be said of, is a tad cynical, despite his enthusiasm for matters rail. He regularly delights in telling me that to the average punter ‘rail is an irrelevance’. Could it be that in relation to Newcastle the rail industry itself is now taking his mantra on board? <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">With 2013 looming as an election year it’s worth reflecting on where rail sits in the psyche of our elected representatives and some of their advisors. <span style="color:black">Tony Abbott’s truck driving stunt along the Pacific Highway and pledge to provide $5.5bn to finish duplicating the road is a good indication of where an incoming Coalition would be coming from in relation to transport policy.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">Opposition transport shadow minister Warren Truss made all the right noises at AusRAIL in November, especially in regard to urban rail, but it was hard to reconcile his statements made there with his remarks made only a few weeks earlier suggesting that funding from the stalled Parramatta to Epping rail project be switched to Pacific Highway upgrades. </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">Anyone who has skimmed through Nick Greiner’s recent Infrastructure NSW report, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">First things first</i> should be alarmed at the ultra conservative, road focused nature of the report’s findings. It wouldn’t surprise me to hear that Greiner’s latest venture is buying up waterfront real estate in Newcastle?<span style="mso-spacerun:yes">       </span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">To be fair, in relation to Abbot’s trucking experience the ARA was quick to highlight the shortcomings of this particular stunt, but the only thing that really would have negated its impact would have been an image of Julia Gillard in the cab of a North South freight train.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">Back in the mid 1990s, the lobby group Rail 2000, through an initiative of one of its industry members, organised a number of locomotive cab rides through the Adelaide Hills for several politicians, in order for them to experience the condition of the infrastructure first hand. </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">Unfortunately these days there are few champions for rail in either political camp and with the current cycle of stimulus funding coming to an end coupled with an extremely tight fiscal situation, it’s difficult to see where the impetus for further investment in rail is going to come from.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">As part of the Rail 2000 program I accompanied the then state transport minister Diana Laidlaw in the cab of a National Rail freight train from Adelaide to Tailem Bend. Whilst we did not necessarily always see eye to eye on rail issues, the fact that she had experienced first-hand some of those issues always made it much easier to sit down and discuss rail matters.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">I seem to remember in the early days of Pacific National a similar program being undertaken, but nothing similar that I know of has occurred since.</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black">In the run up to the federal election and in order to ensure those whose votes count are aware of the issue, perhaps now would be a good time as any to conduct a repeat of that exercise in an attempt to try and win over the hearts, if not the minds, of one or two of our Honourable Members?</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black"> </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom:6.0ptline-height:normal" class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"color:black"> </span></p></p>
