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Report on meeting at Cowra

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 10:21:57 GMT

Report on meeting at Cowra

To all,

As instructed by the meeting in Temora, Dennis and I went to Cowra to talk with Bill West, Mayor of Cowra to find out where we are heading with rail and road.

The rail lines are still in a state of confusion even though I was invited and did attend the presentation of a cheque for $5 million to Hilltops Council for work on opening of the line from Harden to Young.

It would appear that the spending of this money now depends on a business case to prove the viability of the project.

The Councils are now asked to contribute more money for another study on the section and there is considerable doubt in my mind that the Govt. will ever be satisfied.

The huge dump of grain at Maimuru is being shifted by trucks. One can hope that there will be even larger piles of grain to be moved in the future. But this big job is gone.

One can blame Graincorp but the grain would rot in the heap before the Govt. would have acted. We are faced with a plethora of problems with rail operation in NSW with up to four sections of the network having to approve even one train out to Caragabal to shift a load of grain and if there is a hiccup anywhere in the set up then Graincorp pays.

For additional information see Blayney-Demondrille project page

Bells Line of Road

Bill West gave a promise to brief Graham Dunn on his concerns that he is being ignored which Bill says is not the case as every idea put forward by Graham has been checked and researched by the Engineers and they at this stage offer no distinct advantage over existing plans.

Ian Armstrong is the Chair of the Bells Line of Road Group and the group is making very slow going on the project as there has been no reservation of any path across the mountain.

Agreement has not been reached with anyone to come to a decision to build another bridge over the Hawkesbury River nor has a path down the mountain been selected.

It would appear that there is considerable resistance to doing anything.

I now quote "Bill West respectfully suggests that there is an opportunity to be saying both rail and road transport and freight corridors are clear evidence of the lack of strategic long term planning by Govts. of all persuasions including the bureaucrats"

Bill West has offered a full briefing to Dom, Dennis and myself when all the planets are in line.

We thank Bill for his coffee and his time but came away with a feeling of disappointment that so much has been done, so much time wasted and nothing achieved.

Maurice Simpson

CENTURION Update Report

Sun, 05 Mar 2017 22:25:14 GMT

CENTURION

Up Date Report from The Centurion Group on the Maldon - Dombarton Line

The consultation phase of the project continues and we have received ongoing support from key stakeholders including Port Kembla and the councils of Western Sydney and the MacArthur region as well as business chambers and councils.

We have also received some very positive press most significantly in the Wall Street Journal which I will forward to you to share with the members of the committee.

As outlined when we met this project is not just restricted to the Maldon Dumbarton rail line it has a much broader influence on rail and road transport throughout the region as well as addressing housing stock issues with a particular emphasis on housing affordability which obviously is important for the state government of NSW.

As you would be aware China has just had its long New Year celebration holidays so I have little to update you on Chinese partners other than to say they continue to be supportive of the whole project particularly with the global political events that have occurred in America.

Patrick and I expect to be travelling to China within the month to make a full presentation to the board of China rail and establish a project plan for going forward in this year.

Site Visit - Wollongong

Tue, 12 Nov 2013 23:03:29 GMT

To all,

The purpose of the trip was to meet with Wollongong City Council and other members of the LRTC to push for more freight into Wollongong port and to open railway lines including Maldon/Dombarton and Blayney to Demondrille railway line.

It must be said that the trip was most successful given the non attendance of key personnel. Bill West could not come and Mike Foster was also absent both due to family health concerns. We had three Mayors ,Chris Manchester of Harden, Stuart Freudenstein of

Young and Mark Liebich of Weddin who were there to join with Lord Mayor ,Gordon Bradbery of Wollongong City Council. Fifteen in total left on the bus for Wollongong and they were joined by another fifteen who had travelled by their own means to take part in a very complete tour of the Inner Harbour and Outer Harbour of Port Kembla guided by the CEO of Port Kembla, Dom Figliomeni. It was a tour that should not have been missed by anyone who had an interest in the welfare of the Central West and South West of New South Wales.

The Lord Mayor was most hospitable in providing great facilities for us all to feel most welcome and he and his staff are to be congratulated on their willingness to assist in any way. The meeting was opened by Gordon and his welcoming remarks were seconded by Chris Manchester. Judy Hannan of Wollondilly Council spoke with her remarks centred on the tragedy of the non-completion of the missing link known as the Maldon/Dombarton railway line. This work was stopped in the time of Nick Greiner and much later Julia Gillard promised 25 million dollars to complete the engineering studies. The apparent lack of action on this matter will be chased up in the near future. Mr Albanese who has great knowledge of all transport matters might be able to let us know what happened to the study and the money. Judy was appalled that the current Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, was heard to say that the Maldon/Dombarton line was an urban passenger line when it is actually planned for freight only. Someone is wrong. The funding depends on the terminology.

Professor Ian Gray spoke on the economic benefits of the proposal to open the Blayney to Demondrille rail line which would then connect to Port Kembla for the transport of freight into the Port including

wheat in season, but other freight exists right now, double the amount required to make the line work. It does seem strange that a senior member of the staff of Duncan Gay said that no ore would ever get to Port Kembla from the Cowra area when Dom Figliomeni reported that he had shipped to an overseas destination 22 thousand tonnes of ore from Cowra. Phillip Laird gave an enthusiastic report to the meeting on the need for our work on rail and that was well received. Dom Figliomeni was a great tour guide and Dom was adamant that our Lachlan Regional Transport Committee must be more politically active in chasing up the politicians to really have a serious look at freight and not just give comforting words which are now being looked at with a jaundiced eye. Lawrence Ryan, rail historian and rail book author gave an insight to the rail system as it now operates and how it could operate successfully in the future. Tony Madden of Maddens Refrigerated Transport from Harden who operate a large fleet of modern trucks spoke passionately of the need for our Committee to become more politically active, to push our case for rail as he said trucks are going to lose the battle to keep up to the task.

Mark Liebich gave a final report and thanked the Wollongong City Council for their efforts in helping to bring together the five Councils who along with the LRTC were pushing for a better deal. He mentioned that the five councils would also request that the LRTC take a part in the final selection of the Expression of Interest submissions. The LRTC certainly has the people with hands on practical knowledge of the industry and also has a strong academic group who have been recognised overseas for their expertise. Our group will certainly be in contact with Wolondilly and Wollongong about seeking representation on the transport meetings held in their area. Such a meeting was held only days ago in which Duncan Gay was guest speaker. What a lost opportunity for our group.

A special treat was then made available for the travellers and that was a walk on the Maldon/Dombarton line including the huge partially constructed bridge. It was described as almost criminal that such infrastructure has been allowed to lay idle. I wonder how many

politicians have actually put their feet upon the bridge? It was suggested that perhaps the LRTC should field a candidate in the next elections to push the other candidates on transport matters. A question asked can often uncover other hidden agendas.

We must thank Wilkinson's from Young Travel for the supply of the transport and for the excellent driver, Ray Blackwood. Judy Hannan is to be thanked for making possible the tour of the uncompleted bridge.

The next meeting of the LRTC is expected to be soon confirmed to be at Katoomba on Feb 8, 2014

Maurice Simpson

Chair of the LRTC

Maurice Simpson Chairman LRTC, Gordon Bradbery Lord Mayor of Wollongong, Councilor Chris Connor Wollongong Council, Stuart Freudenstein Mayor of Young, Chris Manchester Mayor of Harden, Mark Liebich Mayor of Weddin and Dom Figliomeni CEO of Port Kembla

Site Visit - Toongi

Wed, 30 Oct 2013 00:54:33 GMT

Dennis Hughes and Myself at the invitation of LRTC member Gary Braithwaite from Dubbo drove out to inspect the condition of the existing rail line in the Toongi area.

We found that the Toongi to Dubbo line was in place except for the road crossings which could be easily re established as level crossings.

The line was heavy rail which was not continous welded though it could be welded.

The rail be re established to what ever class is required by the developer Alkane who are seeking a Class 1 line which is more costly.

LRTC would have to establish the traffic load at full production and this load would depend on the amount of intended road traffic that could be placed on rail which depends on the source of the incoming meterial for processing which is about 550 thousand tonnes per year. Thereis not a large volume of finished product leaving the site( about 3 trains per day)

The EIS and other things introduced to the gathering at the Dubbo RSL on Wednesday night 23rd October 2013. It was very clear and it appears that the production of rare earth metals will produce billions od dollars income with 250 full time jobs in the area.

Maurice Simpson

Chair of LRTC.

Media Release - Duncan Gay MLC Minister for Roads and Ports - Deputy Leader of the Government Legislative Council

Mon, 02 Sep 2013 23:53:10 GMT

Monday 2 September 2013

CALL FOR PRIVATE SECTOR INTEREST TO REOPEN COWRA LINES

Minister for Roads and Ports Duncan Gay today called for registrations of interest from the private sector to restore, operate and maintain 200 kilometres of rail line between Blayney and Demondrille – commonly known as the ‘The Cowra Lines’.

Minister Gay said there has been widespread support from local councils and Mayors to reopen the Cowra Lines after they were closed in 2007 because of poor coordination between asset managers, high operating costs and low freight volumes.

“The NSW Liberals and Nationals have listened to and acted on the calls of Central West councils and businesses for the government to work closely with the private sector to gauge interest and investigate if the Cowra Lines can be reopened and made commercially sustainable,” Minister Gay said.

“The NSW Government is committed to ensuring rural and regional rail and road infrastructure – like the Cowra Lines – is connected to provide a high performance transport network to drive economic growth.

“Since winning office in March 2011, the Liberals & Nationals Government has placed freight at the forefront of our economy. We’ve already achieved many firsts, including establishing a dedicated Freight and Regional Development division within Transport for NSW and developing the first Freight and Ports Strategy in the state’s history,” he said.

Minister Gay said council involvement will be essential to make sure the local road network connects efficiently to intermodal terminals located on the rail lines, so regional businesses and primary producers can more efficiently move goods to market.

“The Cowra Lines project is an important and innovative pilot that could help pave the way for other parts of the state’s rail and road freight and transport network,” Minister Gay said.

Transport for NSW is calling for Registrations of Interest from suitably qualified parties to restore, maintain and operate the railway lanes from Blayney to Demondrille as well as between Koorawatha to Greenthorpe on a commercially sustainable basis under a fixed term licence.

This follows a Memorandum of Understanding between the NSW Government and the Blayney, Cowra, Harden, Weddin and Young Shire Councils signed in July 2013 to investigate how a regulatory and operating model for the lines could be improved.

More information is available on the NSW eTendering website at https://tenders.nsw.gov.au/. The deadline for registrations is 5:00 pm EST on 4 October 2013.

Media: Marie Scoutas 0467 739 976

Highway Development Situation - As the CWTF sees it

Wed, 31 Jul 2013 01:22:42 GMT

The Central West Transport Forum is the remnant of the Futures 30 transport and infrastructure committee that emerged from a conference set up some years ago by the Cowra Council.

The transport and infrastructure committee was one of six committees resulting from the conference but only four of the seventy participants chose transport as their main area of interest.

This is interesting as the issue of transport development, so critical for the social and economic wellbeing of all societies, seems to have always suffered from a lack of public interest and participation.

As time went by we found that council interest in the committee waned and it was felt that a more independent stance particularly on road development issues was needed. It was then decided to establish the www.centralwesttransportforum.org website as a tool to air our views.

After many years of watching the actions of government administration including our lobbying experiences, we believe the following areas are in need of attention.

Review of State Planning’s actions and protocols to ensure:

Engagement of the public at earlier stages of planning so that relevant terms of reference for road development projects are comprehensive enough to lead to best long-term outcomes. (Ensuring adherence to those useful guidelines that already exist would also help);
Measures to recognise and address the problem of public apathy and the lack of advocacy in road development matters. (Currently there are no regional road user advocacy organisations in the Central West. Regional industry participation in road development planning is also poor);
Establishment of regional advisory or liaison committees attached to the Roads and Maritime Services that would enable regular public consultation with the RMS and bring them into line with most other government monopolies that do have such advisory committees;
Recognition of the need for independent government supervision of highway planning to manage the parochialism and conflicting interests which usually arise from local government involvement in road development planning. (This is especially needed in issues of town bypassing);
Recognition of the need for town bypassing as a major concern in the modernisation of the highway system and the need for the inclusion of express highway corridors in Local Environment Plans;
Greater participation of State Planning in regional road development projects. This would help to bring more balance to the Planning Department’s present attention in for example, private land and building development.

We believe that the Roads and Maritime Service’s cooperation and acceptance of the above reforms could enable improved public relations and more efficient outcomes for our road system.

Major planning issues in need of review:

The CWTF views issues related to the Bells Line of Road expressway planning with great concern. Our greatest issue lies in the fact that the BLOR has been continually promoted as the only viable option for an expressway between the Central West and Sydney. We believe that the reasoning behind this is simply the fact that it already exists - not because it will offer the best solution. Research of ALL feasible alternatives is needed to prove this.

Our own study of the situation, based on topographic mapping including knowledge of previous research by the then Bathurst/Orange Development Corporation, which considered a new southern option, has led us to question the promotion of a Bells Road expressway. In a reply to our letter directed to the RTA, CEO, seeking information about this research, it was clearly stated that such research has never been done. This is despite a number of recent high level investigations, all of which have been directed into an expressway based on the current Bell Road which have concluded that a Bells Line Expressway is not economically viable.

We believe that research of this new option, which lies basically south of the existing Great Western Highway, could offer much greater service potential by bypassing but allowing connections to the 70,000 people living in the 18 Blue Mountains towns. As well, it would service the traffic from the Central West. We believe that traffic volume and therefore cost justification of this option could be much higher than a Bells option. Connection to the end of the existing M4, already on the western side of the Hawkesbury River, would also enable much better efficiency and economies.

In view of the above, the CWTF also sees the current RMS planning activities relating to the redevelopment of the Great Western Highway between Katoomba and Lithgow, with great concern. This issue has a direct connection to the future bypassing of Lithgow and options for overcoming the major problems associated with the passage of the GWH through the Hartley Valley. The GWH is now classified as a National Highway and consequently will receive what we understand as 80/20 Federal/State funding responsibilities. $250M has been promised to improve the section of the GWH between Hartley and Lithgow with further allocations for safety improvements between MtVictoria and Katoomba. This does NOT include work on MtVictoria Pass.

The CWTF also has concerns about current planning for the Kelso main street (GWH) redevelopment. Again we believe that the GWH, as part of our critical inter-regional connecting highway, deserves much closer regional scrutiny. We believe any study of this situation must take into account the long-term future development of the highway around Bathurst (another bypass issue). This should also include development issues for both the Mitchell and Mid-Western Highways.

We believe examination of these issues will show that much more attention should be directed to the modernisation of our highways which in our view is tied much to the problems of bypassing our major towns. We believe that with the mounting public concern being shown about this problem it is time for State Planning as well as the RMS to show greater interest in regional highway development planning rather than leaving this to Local Government.

N.B. More information about these projects including submissions can be seen on the above CWTF website.

We congratulate the Lachlan Regional Transport Committee Inc. on the work it has been doing for many years in the area of striving for rail service restoration. We recognise that healthy rail and road services are both critical for the social and economic wellbeing of our region. We also thank the LRTC for this opportunity to offer our views.

Graham Dun

On behalf of the Central West Transport Forum

25/07/2013

Regional Rail Revival Seminar

Mon, 13 May 2013 06:38:59 GMT

A lot has gone on in the past few months and little has been reported.

The Regional Rail Revival Seminar at Blayney organised by LRTC in conjunction with Charles Sturt University was held at Blayney Community Centre on Friday 10th May. More information about the seminar including downloadable reports and videos of the presentations are available from the CSU website.

The next ordinary meeting of the LRTC will be held at Grenfell on the 15th June 2013. The actual venue and start time will be displayed on this site soon.

The members of the LRTC are deserving of an apology as the program for Blayney was altered without their knowledge. The earlier date shown for Blayney seminar was for May 18 and this info, was not sent out to all members. The fault is entirely in the executive who became so involved in the organisation of the seminar that the home duties were not attended to by whoever you wish to blame.

Also due to actual constrictions imposed upon the Seminar Committee by the large number of attendees (there were 105 Registrations) it became apparent the the formal meeting of the LRTC had to be absorbed into the seminar where members heard information that would not normally be made available to the group due to the wide spread of experience of the speakers gathered in the one room.

Mayor of Blayney Shire Council ,Clr. Scott Ferguson, gave a warm welcome to the visitors to Blayney.

Associate Professor Ian Gray was the spearhead of the Charles Sturt University group. We are deeply indebted for his service to transport in our region.

Mayor of Cowra Shire ,Clr. Bill West gave an update on the progress of the five Councils work ongoing with the re-opening of the Blayney to Demondrille lines. The MOU will soon be back in the hands of the Government and then the hard work starts on developing the EOI to attract potential operators of the line.

Ed.Zomber, Director Rail Services, Saskatchewan,Canada, has opened many lines in Canada and had a good story to tell which mirrored the process which the groups are going through in Australia in trying to get line operating once again.

After the short break, I announced the MOU from Wollongong City Council which is now fully signed up by all the neighbouring Councils in the Wollongong area of influence. This is concerned with the building of the railway line from Maldon to Domabarton which will open up freight access to Wollongong .

Dom Figliomeni, CEO of Port Kembla Port Corporation outlined the work that has been already done to Port Kembla and the massive work planned to expand services for shipping.

Bryan Nye, CEO Australasian Railway Society who is based in Canberra gave the next talk and opened up on how charges are worked out for shippers and operators on a railway line.

Next speaker was Frank Lander,Senior Policy Officer, Department of Transport in Victoria spoke on his personal experiences in taking on the problem of closed lines and opening the lines to work in a cost effective manner.

The Seminar closed at 12.30 and the persons who wanted to discuss the mechanics of opening a line and put forward proposal went into a separate meeting room to further discuss the situation.

Both sections of the seminar came back together to have a debrief and after a long day the proceeding were officially closed by the Mayor of Blayney, Clr. Scott Ferguson at 3pm.

It would be expected that Charles Sturt University will come back with a report and possible future directions.

The seminar dealt with the Blayney to Demondrille and the Maldon to Dombarton line and was designed to concentrate attention and efforts in a narrow field to ensure that we do make progress.

This was our aim and in my opinion is was achieved.

New Website Launch

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:07:21 GMT

The Lachlan Regional Transport Committee Inc's website has been launched. From here you can find out information about the history of the LRTC, contact information, news on our latest reports and submissions and information about upcoming and past meetings.