This sadly has nothing to do with how effective the rail service is, and everything to do with the valuable land the railway runs on - it's right on Newcastle's waterfront and hence, developers have been greedily eying the land off for years. So hence the backwards/forwards struggle as Red has stated between the pro and anti-rail groups.
Although I'm strongly opposed to scrapping any railway, sadly that's the way things have been happening here in Australia over the past few decades (here in WA Bunbury lost it's centrally-located railway and station in simillar circumstances back in the mid 1980s - the old station is now a BUS STATION! Passenger trains terminate at a spartan terminal a few kilometres out of town and passengers have to complete the rest of the journey by bus. It's an arrangement that later governments have acknowledged was a mistake, and even commisioned feasibility studies were conducted to examine the 'possibility' of reinstating rail services back into the city centre. But of course, nothing has happened.).
History will see to it that this attempt to cut such an important part of Newcastle's infrastructure just to line a few developers' pockets will be remembered as one of the biggest blunders in the state's history.
This happens all over the world, and very much so here in the USA. This sounds way too familiar.
Where I live up in New England, we have lost many routes and short line railroads due to developers and the pressure they put on the municipalities. The old Belfast and Moosehead Lake was a former Maine Central branch that became independent. At some point in its history, the line became a tourist road and was owned by Belfast. The city, under some pressure from some condo developers, closed down the railroad's harbor-side property, stating that there were back taxes owed, etc., forcing the railroad out of the city. The developers never came through with their "big plans", and the railroad is now a poorly maintained trail. What was to be the great riverfront redevelopment, is now nothing more than piles of gravel, scrap, and trash. Today there are talks about restoring the railroad back to the city, but you know how long these talks can go on for.
The Danvers branch from Wakefield Junction to Danvers. This was once part of a longer branch that ran from Wakefield to Newburyport via a junction in Georgetown. Up until the late 1980s, the line ran as far as Topsfield. As time went on, the line was cut back to Danvers, and that's where it was forever. Danvers is the land of NIMBYs, Yuppie snobs, and condo developments. The old railroad junction and yard in Danvers center was eyed for years for other use. Under pressure from the developers, our MBTA sold off their stake in the line. Today where cars were shuffled, and the station used to be, is a shopping center and condominiums. The branch its self is now a bike trail. This line has been on discussion for years for reopening for commuter service, but always that gets put on the side. There is also another line coming into Danvers that is now under pressure. This one comes in from the overcrowded Salem side, and sadly this line may become a walking path as well surrounded by condominiums because it's located right on the sought after waterfront.
The old M&L - Manchester and Lawrence, which ran between the namesake cities since 1842, is now abandoned. Since the 1950s the line had become a freight only service, and was cut back to Salem, NH from Manchester. This happened during the 1980s when the upper end from Manchester through Derry and Windham was abandoned in one shot. The Salem end was quite active freight-wise, and there were talks to re-establish passenger service up as far as the freeway interchange of routes 213 and I-93 on the Massachusetts side. The State of New Hampshire was in discussions to reopen service as far as Derry, and perhaps down to Salem which would have reopened the line. This was supposed to be in conjunction with the widening of the interstate highway. This never happened in part because the State of New Hampshire is 100% anti-rail, and will not spend one cent on anything rail-related. They'll spend millions though on highways! On the Manchester end, the ROW near the Manchester Airport was covered over by a new runway, and a huge shopping center was built across what was left of it up there. In other sections, the highway expansion finished off other parts, and so did a bunch of housing developments. On the southern end, the local freight operator abandoned the freight service to Salem, and embargoed the line from Lawrence to the state line. Their reason being poor conditions due to wash outs and only a few customers. They are notorious for letting conditions slide, and have more than once deliberately let a line rot to discourage service. They effectively drove away the customers on the Salem end. As mentioned above, there had been talks since the 1970s about reopening up the Methuen end for passenger service. Old commuter rail maps from the period even showed Methuen and Route 213 as stops. Even though the tracks didn't see much freight anymore above Lawrence, they were still owned by the MBTA. Some NIMBY groups and a scrap dealer, doing business as a rail-to-trail creator, convinced the "T" to sell off the line. In place of passenger service, is a poorly maintained trail. Oh, one of the details of this plan is to have the cash-stricken towns pay for the trail maintenance! The scrap dealer gets the rails and anything else they can sell. This trail doesn't even go through a very nice area either. In fact it's downright unsafe in many parts. Who was kidding who here!
And finally... One of the most famous branches to go was the old Bedford Branch. This ran from a junction in Fresh Pond, just outside of Cambridge (still in Cambridge, but on the Belmont/Arlington line), up to Bedford. There is a big airport up there, a former air force base, and lots of busy crowded roads. During the 1970s and early 1980s, the plan was to put the Red Line subway, which is a third-rail underground system, up to Fresh Pond Junction. After Fresh Pond, the plan was to continue to run a light rail service up to Bedford, and in particular to Hanscom Field. The NIMBYs and developers came out in full force against the proposal. They didn't want the "city folks" coming out their way, causing problems, etc. What a weak argument that they won way too easily!Today the Minuteman Trail, as it is called, is all that's left of the rail line. The traffic is the worst it ever, down right dangerous to be exact, and there is no relief. Much of the traffic on the roads is that of commuters needing to drive miles to reach the T station in Fresh Pond. Go figure. The bike lane does see its fair amount of commuters, but it doesn't carry enough compared to a train load of people. What used to be sidings and stations is now shopping centers and fancy condos. The developers got their way with this one.
There are so many more branches and even main lines like this, such as the famous Central Massachusetts Branch, and the Eastern Railroad from Newburyport to Portsmouth, that I haven't even touched on. Both of these lines were ready for use, but allowed to rot as developers picked at the ROW section, by section, severing the middle of them, making them useless for any kind of transit use today.
So as we can see, this is nothing new. It appears that wherever there is money to grease the palms of the politicians, this is where the rail lines will disappear no matter where we live in the world.
John
