Save Our Rail keep rabbitting on about pedestrian rail crossings, ifnoring the FACT that State Rail won't allow them. If they did allow them, they'd be there now.

Joan do some research on some of approved lightrail projects around Australia costs per km. The only difference between us is Heavy to Light ! Could you also tell us where a person has to go to get a North Coast bound train from? Country Link? XPT? Even the old steam train the 3801? = Broadmedow Train Station. None of the above train links have been to the Newcastle City link stations for about a decade if not longer! The Wickham Interchange would bring all of the above links of Heavy rail back to Newcastle City to which a light mode could be utilised from the interchange and beyond within the City itself.

A question for Joan and SOR group. Keeping a rail line into the CBD and these dangerous crossings you suggest are adopted. How would you address the issue that the rail line isn't located where Newcastles population is located and is inconvinent to access in the few suburbs it serves? Or do you just want to make it convienent for Sydneysiders to use Newcastle at the expense of locals?

Property values along new light-rail corridors will soar. The Tourism and Transport Forum (Australia's peak industry transport advisory group) supports the extension of Sydney's current light rail network, cites examples in the United States where land values within 800 metres of mass transit have risen by as much as 120 per cent. "Light rail is seen to have a positive effect on property values" the forum's recent paper says. It refers to increases in house prices of 32 per cent in St Louis; 45 per cent increases in the value of apartments and office space along the line in Santa Clara; and a 30 per cent rise in retail space values along the light rail system in Dallas, Texas. The planned extension of Sydney's light rail (which already successfully shares Darling Harbour with large volumes of pedestrians) from Lilyfield to Dulwich Hill, is also likely to improve property values in Leichhardt, Haberfield, Lewisham, Summer Hill and Dulwich Hill. Griffith University says governments around Australia and overseas impose modest "betterment" levies on mainly commercial properties that gained a windfall from the building of these nearby rail services. Permanent infrastructure als

Joan, how many times does Save Our Rail have to be told. Railcorp will not build any more level crossings, fullstop. Do you really think the ALP hasn't already thought of that plan Joan? The Save Our Rail plan will mean nothing changes. No Uni, no GPT, no jobs...get the idea. Save Our Rail is destroying this city. So what is Save Our Rail's Plan B?

i still cant get it out of my head that burying the rail line from broadmeadow into town would be the ultimate goal for a win/win situation. do not take your public transport infrastucture away. people say that no one catches the trains.... this is rubbish. at the busier times i see heaps of commuters on trains.

algate, that stat is meaningless. What did property values NOT alongside the light rail line rise by? Over what period? A valid stat would be a comparative rise over the same period. That may have happened, but that is not the stat you are citing.

algate - great theory if the light rail actually goes somewhere. All the light rail advocates can come up with here is something along an old rail corridor, maybe from Broadmeadow to Newcastle...why would that be of any advantage to anyone? Where are these people coming from and going to?

Newcastle is a little unusual in that its main population centres didn't evolve along the railway corridors. So Judgedredd keeping the heavy rail line into the CBD disadvantages much of the population and advantages only a small minority so the value of keeping it is really outweighed by the return Newcastle gets from removing it. Now if SOR had way of providing value to Newcastle as a whole a not just the few by keeping the line than I am happy to listen but as yet still not going to help majority of us get around the city

SCP and Fista, How many times have I got to ask you to prove that Railcorp will not build pedestrian crossings, you cant prove it because it is another lie of the anti rail mob. They do build crossings, they may have a preference for grade separation but this is will not stop them installing level crossings for people. Once again, keep the line and have a bus transfer all the people from the Foreshore to the CBD at a fraction of the 650 Million dollar cost that cutting the line will cost and the savings can be spent on Hospitals, Police and Education. The real reason for the CBD having less shoppers is Charlestown and Garden City plazas, not the train line. More people will catch the rail line when the University relocates. The real reason you guys want the rail line cut is that you dont like being stopped at level crossings. If the anti rail lobby was fair dinkum they would encouraging people into the CBD by getting rid of parking meters, cleaning up the decrepid graffiti covered buildings and creating a shopping centre like Hamilton which incidentally is split in two by the rail line and the shops are doing quite well.