Many of you who want to see the Newcastle Urban Renewal Strategy proceed have asked about the Upper House Inquiry that has been called in an attempt to stop the NURS. The fact is that the same allegations that will be aired in such an inquiry have been doing the rounds since the NURS was announced in December 2012. As recently as last month, members of the ALP and Greens grilled the Minster for Transport and the Hunter, Gladys Berejiklian in an inquiry without landing a blow (see transcript starting at page 17 at parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/parlment/committee.nsf/0/93d067c2a16ecf22ca257d3900293ddf/$FILE/Highlighted%20transcript%20-%20Transport%20The%20Hunter%20-%2019%20August%202014.pdf). What was particularly amusing was when it was claimed that no city in the world would remove heavy rail and replace it with light rail. Fortunately, Howard Collins, former COO of London Underground, now head of Sydney Trains, was on hand to point out that many cities have successfully converted heavy rail to light rail. In fact, he had first hand experience with the Croydon Tramlink system in London. Like Newcastle it started out with a single underutilised heavy railway that was converted to light rail and extended onto the streets (as these pictures show). Due to its popularity, it has since been extended many times and has been a key driver in urban renewal in the area.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Sep 2014 05:59:45 +0000
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