Wishful thinking on train travel: OPINION

JUST extend the rail line to the Gold Coast and then the people of the Northern Rivers can access the hospitals and airport up there. It sounds good in theory.

JUST extend the rail line to the Gold Coast and then the people of the Northern Rivers can access the hospitals and airport up there.

It sounds good in theory, right?

But ask yourself why hasn't that already happened in the couple of hundreds years since white settlement?

Which NSW Government would be brave enough to send its commuters, workers, patients, shoppers and travellers from this region up over the border to Queensland in their droves?

Think of the all the money, taxes and business NSW would lose by doing so.

It would mean the hundreds of millions of dollars of money spent upgrading Lismore Base Hospital would be a complete waste, if all a health patient had to do was hop on a train and seek treatment on the Gold Coast or Brisbane.

It would also mean there would be no real need for the Ballina-Byron airport if we were encouraging passengers to get on a rattler and take their flights from the airport at Coolangatta.

Currently, there are no plans to re-open the Casino to Murwillumbah railway line. No government of any persuasion is talking about it, not even any of the local members.

Indeed, a report tabled several years ago suggested it would cost close to a billion dollars to upgrade the train track for services.

Meanwhile, billions of dollars are being poured into the duplication of the Pacific Highway.

Seems to me the government is saying to wishful thinking rail enthusiasts, get in your car or hop a bus.