Ten months after trains ceased running into Newcastle station, the New South Wales parliament has passed a controversial bill to close the line at Wickham and rip up the rail line in the CBD.
The NSW Greens, who opposed the legislation along with Labor, the Christian Democrats and the Animal Justice Party, labelled the outcome a “betrayal” of the Hunter community and accused the government of selling out to “developer spivs”.
Greens transport spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi said a valuable public transport asset will be lost and a vital link between Newcastle and Sydney will be destroyed, just to allow the government to flog off the rail corridor to private developers.
The Save Our Rail group has vowed not to give up its fight to retain the line and prevent the sale of the rail corridor
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