That’s the mood of Lithgow Council as it launches into yet another bid to bring about the completion of the Maldon-Dombarton rail line.

It’s a vexed issue that has irritated local government west of the Blue Mountains for years since the partly completed project was axed by the then Greiner Coalition government in 1988.

The line was intended to provide access for coal and other products from the Central West to Port Kembla without the delays inherent in the congested Sydney freight rail system.

Millions of dollars had been invested in major infrastructure including a massive bridge over the Nepean River before the project was abandoned.

It became a symbol of an attitude of neglect towards the needs of regional NSW.

Some years back a meeting of mayors from councils as far west as Dubbo and as far south as the Illawarra met in Lithgow to revive a campaign to revive the line.

As with previous pleas to the government it went nowhere.

Now Lithgow Council is joining regional councils to ‘try and try again’.

Cr Wayne McAndrew said that the NSW Government had recently called for expressions of interest for rail infrastructure projects as part of its Fixing Country Rail program.

He said the regional organisation of councils, CENTROC, is urging local councils to get involved.

Cr McAndrew said there were already constraints on getting regional exports to market.

And with a further two million people expected to cram into the Sydney Basin in the medium term the situation can only get worse.

“Maldon-Dombarton is a dedicated freight corridor,” Cr McAndrew said.

“It gets freight away from the passenger congestion.”

Deputy Mayor Ray Thompson agreed that the completion of the line was important to the region and said that CENTROC has again made representations to the Minister.

“A lot of money has already been pent on this link to Port Kembla,” Cr Thompson said.

Cr Peter Pilbeam, himself a former railway employee of 30 years experience, said that since the impending closure of Tahmoor mine the bulk of coal freight now goes through Newcastle.

“There’s little freight going into Port Kembla at present,” he said.

Cr Pilbeam believes regional councils would be better served by considering what has happened and likely to happen on the western line.

He said that with the line west of Wallerawang reduced to a single set of tracks there was a real need for infrastructure to be returned so that trains could pass each other without time wasting delays.

“They need to create additional paths,” he said.

Cr Col Hunter agreed the incomplete corridor remained an impediment to exporting regional freight through Port Kembla.

“And it’s not because they don’t want to go that way,” he said.

He agreed that line duplication to the west was needed.

Cr Hunter described the removal of one set of tracks between Wallerawang and Tarana as a ‘brain dead decision by a previous government’.

He said this action in the 1950s and ‘60s had resulted in rail movement in the region ‘going backwards ever since’.

Cr Hunter said the government was currently considering creation of a loop at Rydal so trains could pass.

Cr McAndrew said that although most coal was now going through Port Waratah at Newcastle that was becoming increasingly congested.

“The Farmers Federation is pushing for rail freight.

“This goes far beyond just coal transport; it is needed for crops and produce from the west,” he said.

Council voted unanimously to reaffirm its policy and to continue to lobby both state and federal governments for completion of the Maldon-Dombarton line.

FOOTNOTE: During the 1988 state election campaign the Greiner Coalition camp committed to completing the line. Just three months later the project was again dumped citing cost blowouts.