Newcastle Railway Line closure - level crossings to remain permanently open after Boxing Day

[Brendan Terrett]

The Newcastle Line is being closed east of Broadmeadow temporarily and east of Wickham permanently from Boxing Day whilst a new transport interchange is built east of the Pacific Highway at Wickham. What this means in terms of roads is that all level crossings east of and including the Pacific Highway/Stewart Ave at Wickham will be removed, as well as the Railway Street level crossing at Wickham. The government has released a few documents stating what the general plan will be (http://www.transport.nsw.gov.au/projects-wickham-transport-interchange), along with a the design of the new Wickham interchange. Here's a few snippings from the documents:

[Henry Ung]

I thought there were talks of terminating at Broadmeadow Station and close the entire branch line to Newcastle.

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[Sam Laybutt]

My poor city :(

Thanks for the update Brendan, I haven't been following it as I hate the decision...will certainly change things...

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Date: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 02:18:03 -0700
From: mubd...@gmail.com
To: aussie-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [Aussie Highways] Newcastle Railway Line closure - level crossings to remain permanently open after Boxing Day

[Paul Rands]

This was my understanding too.

I guess someone changed their mind.

P

[Albert Alcoceba]

The most short sighted decision ever made.  They will regret this one day, but then it will be too late.

[Paul Rands]

I agree.

This happened in Bunbury in WA, the CBD railway station was truncated, and now you have to go 3 km from the CBD via taxi to get the train. Everyone bitches over it.

P

[Brendan Terrett]

Nah, the people who made the decision (I don't think Gladys was the main push behind this though) will be offered a directorship of Lend Lease or something similar when Hunter Street is gridlocked with cars from new developments. The large gap between rail line closure and light rail operation makes me cynically think that they are going to bin it once it is 'proven' that buses can do the job.

[davis]

Just to clarify this, the line is closing to Broadmeadow on Boxing Day, but that is to allow these works to take place - namely the construction of a terminal at Wickham and stabling facility at Hamilton. Oh and supposedly light rail which will use the rail corridor for a few blocks, not that there's any sign of that in this plan...

[Brendan Terrett]

I've just read about this RMS page about a Newcastle inner city traffic study which is presumably in response to the rail line truncation and the Inner City Bypass extension

http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roadprojects/projects/the_hunter_region/newcastle_traffic_study/index.html

[Brendan Terrett]

An injunction was issued by a court last night preventing the government from closing the railway. Legislation states that a railway may not be closed without an act of parliament, so the government made an extremely dodgy and legally questionable move in an attempt to bypass parliament. Essentially, the Hunter Development Corporation compulsorily acquired the infrastructure off of RailCorp in an attempt to circumvent the Transport Administration Act, but the judge saw through what they were trying to do and issued the injunction.

Nevertheless, the last timetabled train service will be leaving Newcastle at around 11pm tonight. The only change to plans will be that the railway tracks will not be ripped up until either RailCorp wins their appeal or an act of parliament is passed to close the line. RailCorp has been granted permission to remove the overhead wiring (with the condition that it is to be put back if RailCorp loses their appeal). 

A more detailed look at the changes to traffic conditions is below. 

[davis]

Incidentally there's plenty of NSW railway which no longer exists but was never 'Closed' by Act of Parliament. 'Closed' really does seem to just go to the selling/elimination of the right of way.

So anyway now, if they do have to legislate on this matter, all the extant railway in NSW will probably be included in what can be closed by regulation. ie this was a futile delaying tactic that will now become never repeatable.

[Lachlan Sims]

There’s only a handful of lines in NSW that have been formally closed through the act of parliament process (see http://www.nswrail.net/trivia/formally_closed.php)

 

There are many others that are unofficially “closed” (more like disused or not in service) but still legally in existence as railway corridors/rights of way.

 

From: aussie-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:aussie-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of davis

Sent: Thursday, 25 December 2014 11:06 AM
To: aussie-...@googlegroups.com

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