Such is the anger and emotion in Newcastle’s rail line debate, the Transport Minister had to be escorted by police to her train at Broadmeadow on Thursday morning.
The Minister was in Newcastle to announce an upgrade to Broadmeadow railway station with Liberal Candidate for Newcastle Karen Howard.
Flanked by a handful of police officers on the station’s platform, the Transport Minister was heckled by Save Our Rail protestors for the duration of a press conference which turned into a farce.
Miss Berejiklian and her staff were eventually escorted to a train by police. She was here to outline plans for an upgrade of Broadmeadow station to make it more passenger friendly, should a Liberal Government be re-elected in the March poll.
NBN News took the opportunity to ask the Transport Minister about her plans for the city’s light rail project, planned to run between Wickham and the CBD. She didn’t have any details and said there’s no date for when plans will be announced.
Save Our Rail will oppose anything put forward by a Liberal Government. Their motivation is purely political. I bet if a Labor government was implementing this you would not hear a peep from them. They made themselves look like a bunch of ignorant loud mouths today…
That’s because they are……
That is despicable actions by the SOR crowd. This is a big plus for Newcastle. People who come to Newcastle to go to the Stadium see a old station that is in desperate need of an upgrade. Bad impressions are on first glance. Old people who do not like progress and do not want a better future for the younger generations. I am over 60 and I can see the future. I do not look at this with blinkers. There are a lot of young people that have had enough of a stale Newcastle and they are moving on to better locations. Big brain drain and physical drain of the future populations.
No cigar Gladys. This blatant pork barreling in a desperate attempt to buy the voters won’t work.
What about the comment about trams, she has no details nor any date when there will be an announcement – probably because it isn’t going to happen.
This type of behaviour does no one any favours, and is not acceptable. However both of the major political parties need to provide answers, and detail on any such promises, as hollow as they are get voters offside
The current government got quite a windfall with the selling off of the Port- where is the detail of what will come back and just as importantly WHEN . if Labour were also fair dinkum they would provide the same detail and timetable in respect to the railway, light rail etc
In my opinion Newcastle needs some answers, in detail and a timetable as to what our state government ( whomever is in power will do
What we need is a strong, motivated and honest independent to stir the political pot
Well, if Labour gets in I don’t think you’ll have to worry about pork barrelling in Newcastle. We’ll go back to being the forgotten safe Labour seat it was for 100 years. And Crackers will make sure any progress that has been made is undone. The gates will go back up at Hannell St / Stewart Av. and we can forget about the renewal of Newcastle. GPT will run a mile and the proceeds from the Port sale will be spent in marginal electorates in Sydney.
There were no details of the upgrade given by the minister. Later in a radio interview she said that there would be lifts installed. I’m not sure where or why they would be needed at Broadmeadow, but would not commit to the raising of the platforms to enable wheeled passengers to get on the trains. Karen Howard told me that parking would be increased for the station.