The NSW Government has released the long-awaited Cross Border Taskforce report which has concluded that the “re-commencement of passenger rail services on the Casino to Murwillumbah line is not warranted.”

“The report found that the greatest need for residents in the area is for intra-regional connectivity and local transport,” Transport Minister David Campbell said.

The report also recommended that “no further work be advanced on potential rail links between northern NSW and south-east Queensland.”

TOOT president Karin Kolbe said the report was the work of “politicins not planners”.

“The five-page Cross Border report doesn’t even address its own terms of reference. It doesn’t ‘investigate potential rail links nor does it look at any costs,” Ms Kolbe said. “It understates the population growth figures, and it completely ignores the tourism figures... Tourism is to our region what coal is to the Hunter Valley, yet there is no interest in developing transport infrastructure to support our major industry.”

Will Jeffery from the group RAIL2TRIAL said that the report released on Monday and a discussion paper on the Cross Border Transport Taskforce released by the the Queensland Government in 2007 boosted their case for having the Casino to Murwillumbah line converted into a multi-use track for cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders.

“The old corridor cannot serve the two highest population growth areas of the Tweed Coast and Ballina. A new train, and it might be a generation away, would proceed south from Coolangatta, starting sometime around 2018 to 2026, to coincide with Coolangatta coming on line from the Queensland side to serve the current and future population demographic along an entirely new corridor,” Mr Jeffery said. “When it eventually does get here, most likely beside the Pacific Highway, it will be a modern twin track system allowing full integration with the Queensland rail network... This is what we should throw our support behind.”