Media release – Rail Action Group, 30 December 2024

FIFTY YEARS SINCE END OF SUBURBAN RAIL

On 31st December 2024 it will be fifty years since the closure of the Hobart suburban rail service. It was the wrong decision then, made for the wrong reasons, an error compounded by every State and Federal government since, that has failed to support or act on returning commuter rail services to Hobart.

The Rail Action Group especially condemns the Liberal State Government that has overseen the closure of the railway since 2014, leaving it languishing unused, when a new service could have been operational long before now.

HNSRAG President Toby Rowallan said, “This unwelcome anniversary comes at a time when the State Government still has their fingers in their ears regarding Hobart’s public transport needs. Rail is the only thing that will persuade commuters to get out of their cars. Rail is the most environmentally friendly and energy efficient form of public transport.

“With Hobart’s traffic congestion amongst the worst in the country, along with the expected demand worsening with the planned stadium, it is becoming urgent that they reverse course and instead of planning to destroy the railway, reactivate it for the use it was built for.”

“There are those naysayers who claim that the service was closed because it wasn’t used, or that it cost too much. To that we say, ‘well why then do we have so much congestion?’

“Hobart has almost 100,000 more residents now than it did in 1974. The old Tasmanian Government Railways suburban service was underfunded and the trains were old. There are many more houses alongside the railway that were not there fifty years ago. Bus services were never integrated with the rail service.

“Comparisons with what used to be, are simply not a valid argument against rail, indeed they never have been. The cost of reintroducing rail has been deliberately exaggerated by the State Government, the reality is that the cost and impact of not doing so will be far greater,” finished Mr Rowallan.

Featured image above: A TGR DP railcar set leaving Hobart is seen passing HMAS Huon and the slipways. December 1974. Taken by Ian Cooper.