Cycle trail plan ‘back on track'

PLANS for a major cycleway along an old railway line from Newcastle to the Coalfields have suffered a setback, but officials and cyclists are determined to keep the dream alive.

The cycleway was planned on the 28-kilometre Richmond Vale Rail Trail, which runs from Hexham, through the Sugarloaf Range to Pelaw Main, near Kurri Kurri.

Cessnock City Council voted on Wednesday to support a feasibility study for the project.

But councillors voted to pull out of the race for federal funding for the project, saying it was not ready.

The Newcastle Herald reported last month the project was one of three Hunter plans to make it to the next stage of the federal government’s Regional Development Australia funding program.

Cr James Ryan said the council had missed an opportunity.

‘‘It’s very disappointing to have got this far and for some of the basics not to have been done,’’ Cr Ryan said.

Cessnock council led the project, with partners Lake Macquarie and Newcastle councils, Roads and Maritime Services, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Coal & Allied and cycling groups.

A Cessnock council report said support had not been received from private landholders along the route. It said maintenance responsibilities for a cycleway had not been resolved.

Other problems were the lack of a clear concept design and concerns that cost estimates had not been completed.

Despite the setback, officials and groups involved agreed the project had progressed.

They plan a feasibility study for a new cycleway project the full length of the rail trail.

This  would ‘‘better position’’ the project to secure funding.

Newcastle council had offered to take the lead on the new project, the report said.

Mountain biker Bill Metcalfe said the project was a fantastic idea but ‘‘we’ve had to slow it up a bit’’.

‘‘They got a bit ahead of themselves applying for $14.5million in funding,’’ he said.

Mr Metcalfe said it should become a state-significant project to give it a higher priority.

‘‘To ride to Newcastle on a push bike and not go near a road would be the best thing that ever happened,’’ Mr Metcalfe, a member of mountain bike group Kurri Mongrels, said.

‘‘It will be something our grandfathers have given us.’’

It would link to Cessnock and Lake Macquarie and complement the $11million Fernleigh Track, which stretches 16kilometres from Adamstown to Belmont.

Newcastle Cycleways Movement member David Atkinson, who heads their  Richmond Vale Trail sub-committee was hopeful the plan would progress.

He said it was a ‘‘big project, but a fabulous project’’.

‘‘It will take tourists, commuters and walkers from Newcastle to the vineyards on safe off-road cycleways,’’  he said.

‘‘I’ve been involved in trying to make this happen for eight or nine years.’’

He said the route takes in a lot of very interesting geological formations and a scenic environment.

It traverses Hexham Swamp and the back of Newcastle University.

Tourism Hunter’s executive manager, Sheridan Ferrier, said her organisation would ‘‘definitely support’’ the plan.

‘‘Cycleways are certainly important for our region and they are becoming more and more important to people and families,’’ Ms Ferrier said.

The rail trail includes three tunnels and two bridges.

It was built in the 1850s to service coalmines at Minmi, Stockrington, Pelaw Main and Richmond Main.

It was among the last commercial railways in Australia to use steam locomotives.

Newcastle Herald history writer Mike Scanlon wrote recently that the vast majority of the railway ‘‘lies abandoned amid bushland west of Minmi, as does its Hexham to Minmi Junction section’’.

‘‘Most of the rail track was lifted long ago, but hidden in Sugarloaf Range bushland three brick tunnels (often flooded) remain from when the line first opened for traffic in March 1906.’’

‘‘The longest tunnel is about 392metres long.’’