00:00It would be huge for accessibility for our region, so it's grown so fast and to
00:05have something for our young people, people with disabilities and not just
00:09that but also attracting business to the area would be absolutely transitional
00:13for our community. It would be very interesting to see how the study goes but
00:15definitely something we need accessibility, we need better public
00:18transport options for this area and this would provide that.
00:21Business Hunter has called this out as a budget priority item for a number of
00:24reasons. One we've got Cessnock and Maitland two of the fastest growing areas
00:29in the state and we know there's problems connecting workers with
00:34places of employment so this is potentially a solution to help
00:38amend that, address that problem. We've got a corridor, that's a huge head start if a
00:43project like this is to go ahead so what we're saying is let's have a look at it
00:47now because the longer we think about it the more chance there is for this
00:50infrastructure to deteriorate and then not be able to be repurposed.
00:55It would also bring new jobs to the economy up here obviously you'd need
00:59people to maintain the railways, you need people to operate the railways, it
01:03would it really is a no-brainer in our view in a place that's serviced only by
01:08roads to bring rail back and to enable the area to grow in the best way that
01:14possibly can. It really is chump change when it comes to an option to
01:19reopen this railway particularly considering the amount of the government's
01:22spending in the middle of Sydney. It's a no-brainer, addresses a whole heap of
01:26different challenges and is a really positive thing for the area.
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