This move to terminate the line at Wickham or anywhere else except Newcastle Station, has defied logic right from the beginning.

If you look at the proposals even now: There are no immediate plans except termination of the line on Boxing Day.

Nor have contracts been let or called for, for the trams or the infrastructure for them (overhead wiring and track laying). This means that they will not appear for many years, if at all.

Have there been any contracts (let or called) for changes at Wickham to cater for interchange facilities come Boxing Day? Has any thought or consideration been given to the stabling location of the trams, or indeed of the heavy rail trains?

What about crew and station staff amenities. Where will they be located? None of these come free of charge! When all of these costs are considered there will not be much left of our miserly $300 odd million. I can see us being short changed again.

The way I see it, is that people will refuse to use the train and bus to get into town as it will be too inconvenient. The government will then say that trams are not required as the patronage levels cannot justify the expense of their proposed light rail. The final outcome will be that there will only be buses. Nothing else. There has been no indication regarding connections except that people with transfer to buses.

The people who commute into town each day do not want this. Nor do the disabled, students, elderly, mothers with prams and surfers or other clear-thinking individuals.

Leave the heavy rail line in place and spend the promised (not by John Robertson though) millions to supplement the current system with light rail connections from Newcastle and other stations along the line. Then we can have a truly integrated system at no extra cost.

Added to that, if the government reneges on the promised funding at least we will not be any worse off.

It is obvious that no logic has been applied to any of the rail proposals. One can only wonder exactly who, are the ones who will benefit from these plans. The obvious and not so obvious. It certainly will not be the commuters who will benefit. Nor will it be the motorists, who will face traffic gridlock and exorbitant parking fees if they can find a park.

I firmly believe that we are being treated like fools by the proponents of these changes.

We are being told that there will be an extra 20,000 people coming into the CBD when the new buildings and the university are completed.

So, let’s wait and see if the buildings and university go ahead. Then, when we have our supposed 20,000, and/or university run a trial of terminating trains at Wickham and transferring the passengers to buses for at least two weeks.

Only then will we get a true indication of whether this will work or not.

Failing that, run a trial now and see what the resulting traffic chaos will be.

Bruce Matthews

Koree Street, Cessnock.

PS: Should the ICAC eventually become involved?