Central Western Daily, 1 July 2007
It seems crazy that the State Government lets rail lines go to pot and closes them down like the one through Cowra and does not maintain them then pours millions of dollars into the ailing road network on the coast or in Sydney. Why not repair the old lines and put freight on them and stop the roads being belted to pieces by big trucks? Repairing sleepers and doing trackwork is less expensive and more cost effective than trying to build the Bells Line of Road Expressway with its billion dollar price tag. Imagine if we had a tunnel or improved line over the Blue Mountains or to some other interstate rail network like they are proposing with the Melbourne to Brisbane Sydney bypass line? We could ship much more product to and from here or act as a storage area like is happening to Parkes for other people to work from if they come from interstate. It seems only Queensland and Victorian companies are interested in selling to Western NSW people and businesses. If so, make it easier to work with this area and get some traction using rail as a safer and more cost effective way of moving freight to make a dollar for the local economy. With the internet you can have a fulfilment centre in the middle of nowhere with a good broadband connection and take orders and ship from way out West! Then people here don't have to go begging to Sydney and Canberra all the time and can start building up the economy out here rather than always having to use Government investment with all its strings attached to get things moving. USA has a fine network of railroads and it helped build up its economy in the 1800s. Surely we can do the same smart investment of rail infrastructure and not see it as a liability.