NEWSLETTER JUNE 2017

The organisation Diesel Traction Tasmania

(DTT) was formed in 2011 for the purpose of

saving English electric locomotives and other

modern railway equipment that was held in

store by other Tasmanian railway

organisations.

The original goal of DTT was to build a railway

museum at the Round House, Inveresk site.

Due to the lack of public support it was

decided to review other possible options.

In 2014 the possibility of a workshop at

Turner’s Marsh was being considered.

However there were still problems with

operating disused railway corridors.

In the 2015 Federal Budget, it was announced

that the Dorset Council had been allocated

$1.47 million from the National Stronger

Regions Fund to develop a rail trail in the NE

Corridor. Matching funding was required from

the Dorset ratepayers.

There was no public consultation about the

rail trail and as a consequence the North East

residents and farmers living adjacent to the

acquiring the disused rail corridors from

Tasrail. The Strategic Infrastructure Corridor

Act was introduced into parliament and it was

necessary to get the Business plan prepared.

The Strategic Infrastructure Corridor Act

released disused lines from the operational

jurisdiction of Tasrail to the Crown.

There were some significant amendments

made to this Act to accommodate tourist rail

opportunities across the state.

This Act has given the Minister for

Infrastructure Mr Rene Hidding the authority

to nominate a corridor manager.

BACKGROUND TO THE FORMATION OF THE LAUNCESTON AND

NORTH EAST RAILWAY

line took action and formed the North East

Residents and Farmers (NERAF).

In 2015 DTT met with NERF at Turners

Marsh, and as a result of this meeting it was

voted that DTT would further explore the

possibility of operating the North East line.

By mid 2016 it was considered that this

could be achieved. DTT adopted the trading

name of Launceston and North East Rail to

reflect the new goals.

A Letter of Intent was sent to the State

Government, Launceston City Council and

the Dorset Council advising them that there

was another proposal for the use of the NE

Line. Following a meeting with Launceston

City Council, L&NER were advised that they

needed to provide a more indepth plan and

track report.

Consequently the Sarah Lebski and David

Reed plan was prepared and Bob Vanselow

was appointed to conduct a track inspection

and provide a report for L&NER.

THE STRATEGiC INFRASTRUCTURE CORRIDORS ACT

The Dorset Council were to be nominated

as the Corridor Managers for the whole of

the NE Rail Line.

However this has not happed due to the

mounting community pressure to restore

volunteer run passenger rail operations.

On 23 May an independent study was

announced. The State Government said

that the development of the rail corridor is

to be embraced by the community.

THE STUDY – A STAY OF EXECUTION

The study will consider the condition of all rail

infrastructure, a risk assessment, an analysis of

measures needed to ensure safe road crossings

and the level of investment required to establish

and sustain a heritage rail business.

The study will be contracted to a third

party secured by Infrastructure Tasmania.

‘We need to have the facts on the table to

ensure that as a community we can have

an informed discussion about the best use

of the rail corridor’ Mr Gutwein said.

L&NER COMMUNITY INFORMATION MEETINGS

Meeting held 26 April at the Lebrina Hall.

The Examiner: Launceston and North-East Railway forge ahead in

tourist train quest

Victorian railway engineer Bob Vanselow has labelled the North-East railway line all

but fit for purpose, saying it would be a ‘crime’ to remove the track.

Mr Vanselow, who has been inspecting the track since Sunday, was one of about 90

who attended Launceston and North-East Railway’s public meeting at Lebrina Hall on

Wednesday night.

The rail group - based in the state’s North-East - has become increasingly vocal in

voicing its plans to run a tourist train on the disused line, which has also been

earmarked for use as a cycle trail.

Launceston and North-East Railway vice chairman Clynton Brown said Mr Vanselow had been mostly impressed with the state of the railway line.

Another packed meeting on 6 June at the Rory Spence Theatre, Inveresk. David Adams, Vice Chancellor,

University of Tasmania Chaired the meeting. Southern Cross TV presented a good coverage.

150-plus people packed the Lietinna Hall to hear from the rail proponents last night (31 May). Not a

chair vacant - people standing and sitting on the floor. When the vote was taken as to how many

supported the cycle trail there were two supporters. Time for a rethink Dorset Council. Stuart Bryce.

“He hasn’t done his full report yet but he’s getting to the end of the track at the

moment and he said it’d be a crime to remove this infrastructure as it is,” Mr Brown

said.

“He said except in a few places he’d run a train over it tomorrow - that was met with a

round of applause.”

The majority of questions posed at the meeting involved the state of the track, the

cost of repairs and potential train ticket fees.

Mr Brown said while there were some questions the group couldn’t answer until the

project gathered steam, he had been pleased by the public response to the meeting.

“We had a lot of people sign up and give us donations... so it went quite well, there

was a lot of interest.”

The track inspection report is expected to be completed over the next couple of

weeks.

The grant sought by the Dorset Council from the Federal Government’s National Stronger Regions Fund

(NSRF) was submitted without proper consultation with the community. It was stated that letters had been

sent to affected landowners. The first that the region knew about the proposal for a cycle path (or

misleading term - rail trail) was the announcement in the 2015 budget.

Following the address by Tony Benneworth to the Lilydale Community, NERAF was formed to undertake

the community consultation that never took place. When it was revealed that the railway track (valued at

$40mill) was to be ripped up and replaced with the cycle path (government and taxpayer funded for

$6mill) the community wanted answers.

L&NER could see that if the existing line was to be ripped up that would be the end of any possibility of

keeping this railway for future generations.

L&NER contracted Sarah Lebski to prepare a business study.

L&NER have had an independent and experienced track engineer from Victoria inspect the railway line for

a passenger service, who has stated that the line is 95% ready to go.

Disused lines around the state can now be handed over to the State Government by TASRAIL and Dorset

Council was to be made corridor manager. After a lot of communication with the Premier and the

Treasurer, an independent study was announced.

To be able to construct a bike trail (costing $3million of taxpayers money) the State Government has to

hand over management of the corridor.

If the bike trail was to go ahead the railway asset valued at $30mill would be ripped up and replaced with

crushed blue metal – the same as the bike trail between Scottsdale and Tonganah.

L&NER know that if this is undertaken as a community project with volunteer labour and pledges they will

be able to have the line operational in stages within a very short period of time. It is a community

enterprise that is going to provide opportunities for training and jobs, and economic development. The

nature of rail is that you have to have linkages across the community. It is not just a shop in the main street

selling attractive goods – you have to have really strong ties into the community with business and social

networks to support the refurbishment and operation of this railway.

The Heritage railway will be commercially viable. It will be a sustainable tourist rail business once it is fully

developed and will employ up to 20 people. This rail will differ from the West Coast Wilderness Railway in

that volunteerism will establish this line on existing sound infrastructure and provide upgrades where

necessary without government funding.

The rail supporters know that this won’t become a reality unless the community continue to write letters to

our politicians to demonstrate that this is something that they want. We have pledges and private funding

of $1.4million and presently have over 60 willing volunteers.

WHOLLY FUNDED BY PRIVATE ENTERPRISE AND PUBLIC DONATIONS

A TOTALLY SELF SUSTAINING ICON FOR THE STATE

IT WILL BE THE LONGEST NON GOVERNMENT SCENIC TOURIST RAILWAY IN AUSTRALIA

IT WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR EVERYONE

IT WILL CREATE JOBS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

* * * * * * * * *

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IS ABOUT WHAT THE DERWENT VALLEY RAILWAY IS DOING, THEY

WERE ALSO UNDER PRESSURE TO CREATE A BIKE TRAIL FROM NEW NORFOLK TO MAYDEENA

BACKGROUND HISTORY AND THE FUTURE

The DVR wants to re-establish 42km of

disused tracks for a tourist railway between New Norfolk and Mt Field National Park.

The railway has been struggling for more than a decade to gain permission to run on the Derwent Valley

Line, which is only used by freight trains between Boyer and Bridgewater.

Mr Andrews believes the railway will bring thousands of tourists to the region and give them a reason to

stay longer.

“We’re talking about revitalising the valley at the end of the day, we’re talking about creating jobs and

economic prosperity, drawing people to the region,” he said.

“The council also voted to give us some support in overcoming the ongoing issue of access to the

Derwent Valley Line, which has been probably our biggest hurdle.

“With their support, and working with the State Government, we believe there’s a real chance of

overcoming that issue and moving that along quickly now.”

The council also decided to consider setting aside $75,000 in its 2017-18

budget for the purposes of negotiating the lease.

It will work with DVR to pursue funding from the state and federal

governments, and advise Infrastructure Minister Rene Hidding that it is

prepared to consider entering into a lease with the crown for the purposes

of tourism railway.

Derwent Valley Mayor, Martyn Evans, said the council’s decision would

allow it to investigate the finer points of getting the project off the ground.

“This gives us an opportunity now to actually seek the information and

clarity around what a lease could mean, what the implications in cost [are], what sort of buy-in it would

have to be, or what sort of negotiation could we do with the State Government,” he said.

“It’s going to be a world-class experience if we can get through this phase, so we just need to understand

what the implications are.”

The council resolved in 2015 to support a request from DVR to help it obtain a licence or lease from the

State Government and Tasrail for the railway line from Boyer to National Park.

THE Derwent Valley Council (DVC) will consider

leasing disused railway tracks in an effort to

resurrect a tourist train in the region. At the

Council meeting on Monday night, the council

ramped up its support for the Derwent Valley

Railway (DVR) by voting unanimously in favour of

a raft of recommendations.

DVR secretary Owen Andrews, who attended the

meeting, described the decision as a “real turning

point”. “For them to reaffirm their support with a

unanimous vote, they’ve made it very clear that

they are 100 per cent behind this project,” he said.

T

Current position of the Derwent Valley Railway

The Mercury – March 29, 2017

Chris Martin, is a civil and structural engineer and has looked after rail infrastructure in one

shape or another for much of his 23 year career. He had a brief look over the line and could

not see how the figure of $40million quoted could possibly be true.

Wayne Venn – a retired Tasrail Track foreman walked the section from Karoola to Lilydale

(about 10km of the 63km) and found only 50 sleepers that needed replacing before the line

was fit for freight trains.

‘That’s a task for two men in a week to reopen 1/6th of the line. Tasrail’s off the cuff upgrade

estimate might have been a price to replace all sleepers with concrete and completely relay

the track. These upgrades aren’t necessary for the operation proposed by L&NER’, Chris said.

‘The bridges are, all bar one – concrete abutments with steel girders which are in good

shape. The timber decks can easily be replaced at negligible cost with the materials already

on offer through those who support the railway’.

It was thought that Chris Martin’s assumptions as an engineer and Wayne Venn’s as a retired

Tasrail inspector were not impartial enough to debunk the $30million rail upgrade myth so an

associate was approached to find someone to provide an independent assessment.

According to Engineer Chris Martin and track inspector Bob Vanselow The North East track is

in far better condition than the Derwent Valley. The question needs to be asked - If it is so

hard to run a railway why is the Derwent Valley Council lining up to be corridor manager of

42km of disused line? This line has very few steel sleepers in it compared to the North East

line.

Bob has completed his inspections and will prepare his report over the coming weeks. His

comments at the Wednesday night meeting at Lebrina and during the inspection that I

accompanied him on were that with the exception of work on bridges most of the line could

be open for the light weight rail car traffic within a very short space of time.

He said 98% of the line does not require attention and is fit for purpose. When his report is

issued will this be brushed aside with further “guns for hire” comments from the Dorset

Mayor or actually respected as an independent report from a professional with integrity and a

wealth of knowledge in rail infrastructure?

This is the background on the ‘Gun for Hire’

Chris Martin stated ‘The Dorset Mayor stated on ABC Radio words to the effect that Bob

Vanselow was a “gun for hire” – by inference someone paid to provide a favourable report full

of lies and - that anyone can get a favourable report. Is this really how it works with most

things Council undertake – just pay someone to write some lies to support an argument? It’s

not how the engineers that I associate with work as they as professionals are bound to a code

of ethics’.

The Rail Lines - $30million Rail Upgrade Myth

• Bachelor of Engineering (Civil), University of

Melbourne, 1969 (Honours 2A)

• Member, Institution of Engineers Australia

• Chartered Professional Engineer (NPER: 226903)

• Member, Railway Technical Society of Australasia

• Member, The Chartered Institute of Logistics and

Transport in Australia

• Fellow, The Permanent Way Institution (UK, 1993)

• Member, The Permanent Way Institution (NSW

Division, 2008)

• Member, Rail Track Association Australia

MR Robert Gordon (BOB) VANSELOW

My real hands-on experience in the

world of railway works and

volunteering began when I was 14

years old. It was then that I began

years of weekend volunteering to

help restore its over-grown narrow-

gauge railway tracks, as part of the

'Schools Section' of the Puffing Billy

Preservation Society, which

contributed to the successful

restoration of the now iconic 'Puffing

Billy Railway' in Melbourne's

Dandenong Ranges (which now, on

average, carries more than a

thousand passengers every day,

through country-side fairly similar to

the Scottsdale railway).

My first paid job in the 'railed-

passenger carrying' world began

when I turned 18, as a 'Tram

Conductor' for the Melbourne and

Metropolitan Tramways Board (the

largest street tramway network in

the world, with more than 270 km of

double-track).

In this role I was responsible for the

safe operation of my assigned electric

trams travelling through the streets of

Greater Melbourne, while collecting

fares aboard. In this job I accumulated 6

months service, spread across my early

University 'vacation' periods. The

busiest tram routes move more than a

thousand passengers every day, in each

direction.

While working for decades in the Pilbara

from 1980, I volunteered much of my

spare time to the Pilbara Railways

Historical Society, as their 'Passenger

Officer' responsible for the safety of

passengers aboard their community-

based passenger trains, which then

operated regularly (amongst the largest

trains in the world) over most of the

Pilbara's railway lines of the day. These

trains operated to places as far afield as

400 km's inland of their more populous

coastal cities.

So as well as my railway track

engineering career, I do know quite a bit

about the general public and how to

ensure their safety aboard and around

all manner of trains.

The former Deputy Prime Minister and prominent rail advocate, Tim Fischer AC has endorsed the reopening of the Launceston to Scottsdale railway line:

Rarely does a scenic railway track with a market anchor and a tunnel as a bonus become available for development as a tourist and heritage railway. The Launceston to Scottsdale rail project has very solid potential to be a drawcard of great value in a part of Tasmania easily accessed by tourists, but to some extent overlooked due to not enough activity of diverse interest. Further it is not impossible for such a rail project to underpin a rail trail nearby pathway to offer enhanced activities and choices for tourists of all ages, through spectacular scenery. The anchor of a major airport hub at Launceston and the not so distant Devonport Ferry hub also helps ensure the NE Line can become a regular ‘go to’ destination for tourists from the mainland and beyond, in addition to Tasmanian users. Wales as part of the UK, is a good example of multiple and successful rail heritage and tourism operations, albeit with huge markets nearby and super hubs such as Cardiff and Crewe. Alas, the Welsh Highlands Railway also has the first Garratt that operated in the world (in fact on the North East Dundas Tramway of the TGR), pointing to another lost opportunity for Tasmania.

Rail motors offer tremendous potential to Scottsdale, boosting tourism in the North East. I say seize the moment, use everything from crowd funding to Governmental funding on a track which is in better shape than the one used successfully weekly by the Savannahlander in Qld, between Mareeba and Forsyth, both being of narrow 3'6" gauge. If you have a tourist asset capable of drawing 200,000 within two years of operation plus a bike trail nearby - why would you let it rust away !

Let the L&NER Tasmania proceed and succeed, let it not be a lost opportunit

In our view, this is not simply a case of ‘bikes’ versus trains. It is about the preservation and use of an important historical asset which otherwise, will be lost forever. It is also about viable public/private partnerships for infrastructure development, an investment in cultural and heritage capital, and the economic and social returns that can be gained by connecting North East communities with a broader, long term vision to assist the revitalisation of the region; a vision that can generate almost $1m a year into the local economy. .

L&NER DECLARATION OF SUPPORT

SARAH LEBSKI REPORT

It is being stated that trains are ‘not profitable’. Is preservation of history, provision of

enjoyment for all who travel on trains, the revenue that they earn and return to their local

communities year in and year out constituted as ‘not profitable’.

The not profitable measure can be applied to sports grounds, museums, hospitals, roads and

even rail trails where participants don’t have to spend anything towards ongoing

maintenance.

The Don River Railway is a good example of a small operation – open 7 days a week,

employing one person and predominantly operated with volunteers. It carries 30,000 people

and is recognized as one Devonport’s best tourist attractions. They pay $3,500 for insurance

– an issue commonly thrown around as a reason rail can’t survive by those who know no

better.

Imagine what an operation on the outskirts of Launceston can achieve with a far broader

marketing mix for its trains including dining experiences, music trains, picnic trains, over

night accommodation linkages into Scottsdale and along the line, delivery of cyclists to

established trails and bus one way options to increase patronage and linked off rail

experiences.

The Sheffield Steam and Heritage Centre runs SteamFest each year attracting up to 8000

people to Sheffield over the 3 day March weekend. They run this voluntarily. Exhibits and

over 140 food and craft stalls cover 8 hectares of Council ground there. This group started out

as a small railway 23 years ago and is well on its way to being a 7 days a week operation.

28 June - NERAF Meeting at Lebrina Hall.7.30pm. 29 June – Public Meeting at Lilydale Hall, 6.00 for 6.30pm. Brett Whelan from the Yarra Valley Railway will be presenting the benefits of community

driven tourist rail projects. See the article below for further information. This presentation is for the broader community and will consist of many invited business people and politicians. How a community can change its own tourist and economic profile - case study Yarra Valley Railway. "The story of a community-driven turnaround of a languishing rail corridor into a growing community tourist asset. In 2016 the Yarra Valley Railway had over 500 individual volunteers from 10 different community groups. They contribute over 60,000 volunteer hours to the community. The Yarra Valley Railway is the result of the local community and business, together with government to make it a reality. When completed the YVR will:

Carry over 200,000 passengers per annum Create great linking with the existing tourism product

…AND THE JUSTIFICATION GOES ON

THE NEXT MEETINGS

The Tourist and Heritage Rail sector in Victoria consists of over 20 operators.

• Most are completely voluntary. • They carried over 800,000 passengers last year and the sector is continually growing

each year. • None require ongoing operating funding support once completed. • Passenger profile is more diverse than most tourism products. • There is unprecedented growth in international tourists particularly from China. This

growth seems destined to continue into the foreseeable future.

1 July – 10am Members Meeting – Providence Vineyard Lilydale

Brett Whelan Presentation targeting the LNER members and members of other Tasmanian

Tourist Railways – the lessons learnt in engaging with the community – tips for the heritage

rail sector based on the Yarra Valley Railway Case Study.

Following the presentation there will be a members forum, General Meeting and Annual

General Meeting.

THE NORTH EAST TOURIST RAIL PROJECT