Ruth Ratcliffe
& Daniel Gregory, Newcastle

The Save Our Rail (SOR) committee is planning to join the local May Day march this year in another demonstration of the widespread opposition to the Carr Labor government’s plan to cut the Newcastle train line.

The proposed closure is widely seen by opponents of the plan as a land grab by business interests. The train line occupies some of the most lucrative real estate in the city along the Newcastle Harbour foreshore.

The latest recommendations of the NSW government-sponsored Lower Hunter Transport Working Group will result in the current branch line cut at Broadmeadow Station by 2008. Commuters would have to transfer onto buses for the last leg of their journey to Newcastle.

On March 19, 600 people crowded into Newcastle Town Hall to hear from Hunter area MPs and local government representatives opposed to the closure. Bryce Gaudry, Labor MP for Newcastle, criticised the proposed Broadmeadow bus-interchange as “inferior planning”.

Matthew Morris, MP for Charlestown, pointed out that the environmental and social equity arguments for maintaining Newcastle’s public transport infrastructure had been ignored by the Carr government and the NSW transport ministry. He summed up the mood of the meeting when he concluded that “the decision to cut the rail line stinks, and we want it overturned”.

NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon also addressed the meeting. She applauded the stand taken by the Hunter Labor MPs but pointed out that if Labor had a majority in the Legislative Council the rail line would already have been closed. She encouraged those present to use public pressure and protest as a means to stop the rail closure as well as pursuing government inquiries.

The meeting passed two resolutions. The first demanded an independent and comprehensive social impact study prior to the removal or closure of any transport infrastructure. The second resolved to continue enquiries to expose the source of incorrect information used by the Lower Hunter Transport Working Group and “to pursue by any means, any possible malpractice or negligence resulting in community disadvantage”.

The Rail, Bus and Tram Union (RBTU) has welcomed an approach from SOR to join the RBTU contingent on the May Day March. RBTU members working on the Newcastle line are at risk of losing their jobs if the Newcastle line is closed. SOR has invited the general public to join the rally to show solidarity with a union movement facing attack from the Howard government and to encourage the union movement to support the campaign to save the Newcastle rail line.

Controversially, Newcastle Trades Hall secretary Gary Kennedy has been a vocal and public supporter of the closure of the Newcastle rail line. Kennedy is also a board member of the Honeysuckle Corporation — the entity charged by the NSW government with the redevelopment of the Newcastle Harbour foreshore.

The Newcastle May Day rally begins at 10 am on May 1 at Civic Park. The next general meeting of Save Our Rail will be held at 5.30 pm on May 4 at the Hamilton Station Hotel, Beaumont Street, Hamilton.

From Green Left Weekly, April 27, 2005.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

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