Rail rumours
RUMOURS, particularly in country towns, tend to take on a life of their own and can quickly become accepted as fact.
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For years there have been ‘ínsider’ claims, usually by railwaymen themselves, of a hidden plot to terminate Blue Mountains passenger trains at Mt Victoria.
The claims are just as quickly rejected as ill informed scuttlebutt.
But with the inter urban train replacement fiasco front and centre these days those rumours are again up and running — among railway people.
Adding fuel to the fire is Minister Constance flagging the prospect of cost cutting in the now necessary widening of our 10 tunnels — and raising obvious concerns — by reducing the margins between passing trains.
There’s no denying there was massive stuff up by rail bureaucrats and their political bosses in bypassing local manufacture to buy cheaper off the shelf trains from Korea.
Too late was it discovered that someone hadn’t done their homework and the new trains can’t be accommodated at stations west of Springwood, or in the Zig Zag tunnels, forcing very costly modifications.
So much for off the shelf savings.
With a NSW election due in March we have to have cast iron assurances that those renewed Mt Vic rumours are just rumours.
Nothing else in acceptable.
No holidays for critics
THE season of goodwill didn’t extend to the critics in a love/hate (no, forget the ‘love’ bit) relationship with the ‘new’ Cook Plaza.
The predicted issues with the raw concrete have become all too real in our seemingly endless heatwave where the reflected heat makes the plaza, in a word, uninhabitable.
Time for our Councillors to get over their embarrassment and, as we’ve previously suggested, at least consider the lead of Nepean Council who very successfully softened their new open public space near the Joan Sutherland Centre with soft artificial grass.
Looks good too, which can never be said of raw concrete.
Still with the plaza and urgent action is clearly needed to restrict poorly maintained vehicles from accessing the area.
Ominous oil stains already adorn the southern end of the plaza and the area will soon have all the visual appeal of a grubby shopping centre car park.
No surprises
OUT with the reindeer, in with the bunnies!
The Christmas lights hadn’t even gone out around town before Easter buns popped up in all our supermarkets.
Nothing wrong with that; some people enjoy year round hot cross buns but there was no avoiding the cynical comments.
Good start; poor finish
PRE Christmas there was a lot of tidying up around the car park and nature strips at Lithgow’s Valley Plaza, including the spread of quite a lot of woodchip.
Pity the wood chip budget didn’t extend to the area that needed it most, the unsightly plot near the northern entrance (opposite Liquorland) that appears to be filled with coal chitter and manhole covers.
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