The Launceston & North East Railway (L&NER) group, originally formed in 2011 under the name Diesel Traction Tasmania to preserve redundant examples of locomotives and rolling stock held by Tasrail and to establish a railway experience in the Launceston area.
An alternate proposal for the disused North East line has been revealed by L&NER, along with the announcement of the purchase of a railcar and trailer for use on the line. The proposal has;
Strong local community support,
Outlines a higher tourist yield,
Outlines preserving the history of the region and Tasmania as a whole.
Clynton Brown, Vice Chairman for L&NER said “The proposal was developed due to the group needing a home and after a meeting with local community members, it showed over whelming support for a tourist rail project. This support extends to numerous tourism operators in the area for example; Providence Vineyard who wish to resume the very successful wine trains that ceased without warning in 2004 when Pacific National ceased all operations on the line. Another tourism operator in the area Robert Ravens, owner of Bridestowe Lavender Estate, has also publicly backed the railway proposal.”
“The support of business people such as Mr Ravens has strengthened the possibility of tourism boom available to the struggling local community”, stated Mr Brown. “With the use of the line as a tourist railway, it not only preserves the line and unique local infrastructure built in 1888, but allows L&NER to operate restored and unique locomotives of the former Tasmanian Government Railways. These along with the vintage passenger railcar set, purchased for L&NER by a local supporter, will be used on the line to ferry tourists to various wineries, breweries, eateries and local tourist attractions along and outside of the picturesque line.”
When fully developed a daily service consisting of multiple rail experiences is proposed.
The rail service will provide linkage options to other North East attractions further out than Scottsdale such as;
Transporting cyclists to the Blue Derby mountain bike trails,
Derby River Derby,
Tin Dragon interpretation centre,
Fishing and Wildlife tours
This is just a small sample of existing tourism that L&NER can enhance.
Services on the line were suspended in 2004 by the then new owner of the network. This was in contrast with the amount of money invested by the former owner to rebuild the line. Some of the works done on the line include lowering the track bed inside the tunnel, a major bridge replacement at Lietinna in 2002 and numerous sleeper replacements with modern steel sleepers in many sections of the track.
The reports of needing $30 million dollars to upgrade the line to an operating standard are for upgrading to the now Tasrail heavy mainline standard. This is well above the standard needed of L&NER’s rolling stock or any former rolling stock that once used the line. Mr Brown stated “L&NER are only required to repair the existing track and some bridge decks. The amount of repairs is minimal, with a 10km section inspected between Karoola and Lilydale only needing 50 sleepers and a weeks’ worth of repairs to be traffic ready according to a track inspector.
We have sent the proposal to the Launceston City Council, Dorset Council and both houses of parliament. We are currently liaising with the LCC, as nearly two thirds of the railway line runs through their rate payer’s municipality”.
Launceston & North East Railway can be contacted for public questions via the facebook page, with public meetings soon to be held at locations in Launceston, Lilydale and Scottsdale.
Download plan …
NE_Line_Plan.pdf
Clynton Brown, Robert Ravens, Chris Martin
