Past Events

Railfest

Sunday 2nd October 2005 - Newcastle Foreshore

Railfest was a day of festivities on the Newcastle Foreshore on Sunday, 2nd of October 2005 to demonstrate community support for the Newcastle Rail Service, celebrate 150 years of rail services in NSW, raise awareness and funds for the campaign to Save Our Rail.

Save Our Rail exceeded all its previous public achievements at Railfest 2005. The eye-catching belly dancers attracted a great deal of interest along with Save Our Rail Lower Hunter Transport Plan presented by Joan & Darrell. Glenn's Model trains, Su Cruikshank's auction, the jumping castle and fairy floss along with plenty of other entertainment kept the crowd entranced throughout the day.

May Day March


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Sunday 1st May 2005 - Civic Park

Newcastle Trades Hall enjoyed the biggest and best May Day march in decades when Save Our Rail joined the march from Civic Park to the Workies this year. Marchers were blessed with a lovely autumn day and the carnival atmosphere was amplified by stirring music from the Scottish Pipe Band, our own university tom toms and soul-stirring chants.

More than half of the marchers chose to march behind Save Our Rail banner, and we were honoured by the participation of five political groups, at least three unions, Newcastle University students and hundreds of passionate supporters.

Lower Hunter Transport Forum

Saturday 19th March 2005 - Newcastle Town Hall

Save Our Rail, with Newcastle City Council, held a very large Transport Forum, with over 600 attending from as far away as Muswellbrook and Gosford, which called for social and economic impact studies to be conducted on the proposal to close the line.

Superior Bus Demonstration


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Wednesday 23rd February 2005 - Newcastle Station

When former Minister for Transport Costa announced the closure of Braodmadow to Newcastle rail line, he also mentioned that no new buses or special roads were needed as there was sufficient capacity in the existing Newcastle buses. A year before he announced that superior buses would provide a better transport system on a dedicated bus corridor. People of the Hunter were asked to assemble at Newcastle station at 2.30 PM to see if it is indeed practical for them to change over to a bus from a train at Newcastle Station.

  1. More than 200 people assembled in Endeavor Park at 2.30 PM and were advised of the purpose of the demonstration.
  2. At 3.00 PM most of the would be commuters moved to the bus stop over the road from Newcastle Station in Scott Street.
  3. A number of people remained behind because they explained they were incapable of riding on a bus or marching, usually as a result of a disability.
  4. The first bus took about 30 people without difficulty except that by the time they were loaded there were about five other buses jammed in behind it.
  5. After about four buses had passed a bus capable of taking wheel chairs arrived, and the driver loaded one wheel chair. He refused to take any more wheel chairs.
  6. All buses approached refused to take on board push bikes.
  7. A lady with a walker was loaded onto a bus with some difficulty. By this time buses were banked up the street as far as we could see.
  8. By 3.30 PM there were still about a hundred people awaiting entry on the bus, and it was decided to abandon the bus and walk down the mall onto Civic station and catch a good old train.

Ribbon on the Station Day


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Australia Day, Wednesday 26th January 2005 - Newcastle Station

More details to come...

Lower Hunter Transport Workshops

March 2004 - Maitland, Newcastle, Shortland, Warners Bay, and Wyong

The Save Our Rail (SOR) group ran a series of community forums to increase their understanding of community needs around public transport. This was done in response to the Lower Hunter Transport Working Group (LHTWG) reports from October - December 2003.

The LHTWG reports did not report on community views. Although the LHTWG received over 320 submissions, none of these were described in the reports and the submissions are not publicly available.

SOR decided to run these workshops on public transport deliberately not focusing on the rail issues but public transport needs, generally recognising that rail is only one form of transport.