Minutes of the LRTC Meeting 9th February 2019 at Blayney
LACHLAN REGIONAL TRANSPORT COMMITTEE
Minutes of the Ordinary Meeting held in Blayney Saturday
9 th February 2019
Chairman Dom Figliomeni opened the meeting and welcomed everyone present.
Dom Introduced Mayor of Blayney Scott Ferguson Welcomed the group and spoke about the history of the building the Committee was in, which the community demolished and rebuilt a new one completely by volunteers. Centrock still working on a safe and swift corridor over the Blue Mountains to the City to completely open up the Central West. He also stated that there is a strong rail group in Orange working on faster rail to the City
ATTENDANCE: As per attendance sheet Total 20
APOLOGIES: Steph Cook, Gordon Bradbery, Philip Laird, Max Duffy, Michael O’Leary, Stephen O’Byrne, Rob Fisher TOTAL 7 MOVED: Ray Morris That apologies be accepted. SECONDED: Maurice Simpson CARRIED.
MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING: Held at Temora on the 3 rd November 2018 accepted as read with two changers to Ian Gray’s Section John Barilaro and to Canberra MOVED: Ken McGrath SECONDED: Dale Wiencke CARRIED.
BUSINESS ARISING: More monitoring of the ARTC.
CORRESPONDENCE IN:
Dubbo Bypass maps etc.
Request to Dubbo to host next meeting
Shoalhaven Council declining membership to LRTC
Letter from Philip Laird 2019 Fixing Country Rail through meeting to Hon Minister Constance MP
CORRESPONDENCE OUT:
Letter from Philip Laird sent to Minister Constance at Sydney Meeting
16 Membership Invoices sent out to Councils and to all Individual members
Thank you Letter to Temora
Report of the meeting with Doug Walther Policy advisor to Melinda Pavey MP
Payed NSW Fair Trading
MOVED: Craig Bembrick SECONDED: Ken McGrath CARRIED.
SECRETARY REPORT: Nil
TREASURERS REPORT: Presented by Dennis Hughes Opening Balance as at 1 st November 2018 $ 13826.53 Income $2670.09 Expenses $439.73 Closing Balance as at 31 st January 2019 $16056.89 MOVED: Dennis Hughes That the Treasurers Report be accepted and A/Cs be paid SECONDED: Ken McGrath CARRIED.
REPORTS: Report on the Sydney trip to meet with the RMF Minister Melinda Pavey’s Policy Advisor Doug Walther. Maurice and Dennis explained that we focused on the Maldon Dombarton line which the Government were considering but not in the near future but the Blayney Demondrille line which may be up graded up to a class 1 line possibility in the nearer future and the Dubbo bypass which we presented the information from Dubbo which he was interested in and said that he would look into it. Maurice indicated that it was a very good meeting.
Parkes Ken McGrath: December 18 Parkes had the Inland Rail official sod turning of the $8.4 mil construction site 5.3 ks out of Parkes for the Narromine line with a number of politicians in attendance plus a video link with Scott Morrison. The Hub is going well and they were given another $8.2 mil to upgrade the road to the Hub. Pacific National have started to build there $18 mil complex at the Hub to load trains at a length of 1800 met to move 450,000 ton cargo each year. The ARTC have now put an office in Parkes. Parkes also received another $1.3 mil for country roads and Melinda Pavey announce another 13 new road overtaking lanes between Parkes and Narrabri and they are going to be 1.5ks long. Question from the floor about the Parkes Airport. Parkes Council have got a DA approved and activated by building a control tower for freight but companies have not been able to come up with the freight because there needs to be 20 movements a week to make it viable. The whole development will cost $450 mil to complete the project.
John Hetherington Grenfell: Acquired a colour map of NSW regional railway network capability from the NSW Farmers and said that he had never seen one and noted that the rail tracks are replaced every 4 to 7 years because wear and tear.
Weddin Shire Craig Bembrick: Still working on Road Train access from Forbes to Marsden via Bogalong. The main street upgrade will commence in the near future. Steph Cooke opened the new Tafe which is very modern and can run many more classes.
Garry Braithwate Dubbo: Reported on the Dubbo bypass RMS have been in contact with the 3 property owners and informed them that the advanced plain will be out and on display next month but it will take political intervention to stop the bridge from been built. A controversial roundabout had the traffic lights removed some 20 years ago now the Council wants to replace the lights in the near future which will cause some problems on small businesses.
Ray Morris LVR: Commented on the continued work of this committee to keep the Blayney Demondrille line in the forefront of the politicians involved. LVR would like to thank Cowra Mayor Bill West and the committee for work already done. LVR have had some positive result from John Holland to allow movements in and out of the loco shed and to use the turn table. An assessment on the cost of reinstating the line from Cowra to Woodstock for tourist trains.
Graham Dunn Cowra: There have been 7 major inquiries into the problem of a road crossing over the Blue Mountains with no results. In 1998 Centrock had a brief drawn up of alternate routes over the Mountains but has never been acted upon. Graham is not happy with the way the road system is heading. Dom advised $400 mil had been set down for roads but no plans have come forth.
Eddy Wilkinson Canowindra: Spoke on the LRTC Facebook page and advised that he had posted a video of the Cowra to Demondrille line by drone and invited any members of this committee to join this page. Hilltops Council: John Horton: Thanked the committee for the work done to clean up the Harden Railway Station. The new ambulance has just been opened, a new hospital to be built starting this year, $1mil for the Harden Race Course for buildings starting this year, a $1mil beautification for the Murrumburrah park and creek area. The Kruger Trust was left to Harden by a local Dentist and now has been built up to $47mil and using $8mil to build a new Golf Club, $750,000 for the Maclean Oval, The Rural Fire Head Quarters to be built in Harden at a cost of $14mil, $100.00 for the History Hall Museum to house military articles of Brian Dutton. A new library in Young at a cost of $32mil. This year’s Kite Festival in Harden was a great success.
John Faulks Nowra: Commented on the length of time it takes for the Government to act.
Bede Ryan Young: Question on the $5mil for the reopening of the Demondrille to Miamuru Line and wear is that money. Maurice advised that the money is still available assured by Doug Walther Policy advisor to Melinda Pavey MP at the Sydney meeting
Ian Gray CSU Wagga: The Government announcement to hire a British Professor to investigate high speed trains to Port Macquarie, Orange and Canberra also the Government is looking at straightening the tracks opening the very possibility of having very fast trains
Pascale Stendell Cowra: Retaining documents electronically received and sent to politicians
Moved: Maurice Simpson That Ian Gray correlate passed and future correspondence and reports of the LRTC in conjunction with Pascale Stendell and Eddy Wilkinson. Seconded: John Horton Carried:
Moved: Maurice Simpson The committee allocate up to $5000.00 for the establishment of an electronic record system for the LRTC Seconded: Eddy Wilkinson. Carried:
Temora Dale Wiencke: Received a grant of $1.4mil to seal an important lane west of Temora to service a quarry and also for grain to be bought in to Temora. A grant of $2.1 mil Plus $400.00 for a rail spur line for BFB’s grain facility. $28mil for the rail line upgrade from Temora to Ungarie line. At this time Blayney Mayor Scott Ferguson left the meeting.
General Business: Discussion on population and area of our member Councils and we must make sure that we have the support of all the Councils in the group. Bede Ryan. The Blayney Demondrille line was never closed but in 1996 it was suspended but had $3mil allocated for new steel sleepers but were stacked at Cowra and then they ended up at Coonamble North Star line.
$7mil was spent on the silos at Cunningar Harden now farmers have to truck grain along this line either to Maimuru or Cunningar travelling through Young, Wombat and Harden. Dom indicated that the Opposition would come out with a policy before the next election on the Blayney Demondrille and the Maldon Dombarton lines as they depend on each other. Garry Braithwate The Newell Highway will work in with the new bridge but there are quite a few trucks and light traffic bypassing Dubbo by going through Tomingley and Narromine. Would road counters on the Newell and the Tomingley Narromine roads be helpful to the Committee to compare numbers. Dom with the permission of the Committee write to all Political Parties and regional media explaining the Committee’s population catchment area numbers.
A list of projects for Dom to include in the correspondence to all Political Parties and regional media.
The Bell Line of Road
Maldon Dombarton Line
Blayney Demondrille Line plus the $5mil
Road Train access to Weddin and Temora Shires
Bypass around Dubbo and the new bridge
Harden Railway Station needs manning
Letter from Philip Laird some comments will be integrated into Dom’s letter
Next meeting 11th May 2019 at Dubbo
MEETING CLOSED 12.00pm
CHAIRMAN: …………………………………………………….