Work on the final leg of Wagga Wagga City Council’s Active Travel Plan can finally go ahead after an abandoned railway track not used in 40 years was finally classified as inactive. Photo: Wagga City Council.
A train line that hasn’t been used in decades has finally been signed off as inactive by Transport for NSW (TfNSW), allowing Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) to commence work on a walking and cycling track in Forest Hill.
Construction will finally begin on the final leg of WWCC’s Active Travel Plan – a 3.6-km track expected to run from Bakers Lane in Kooringal to Elizabeth Avenue – almost seven years after the plans were approved.
The cause of the major delay was a rail corridor that travels alongside Inglewood Road that hasn’t been used in almost 40 years.
The track, as classified by TfNSW, has only recently been classed as inactive, despite it being decades since a train has travelled on it.
Due to the track running alongside Inglewood Road, WWCC’s plans to build a bike/running track from Forest Hill conflicted with an ‘active’ railway line.
Now that TfNSW has changed the classification of the track, construction on the Forest Hill leg of the active travel track can go ahead.
“It has taken some time to get to this point, because we’ve had to go through numerous planning processes and to get access to the rail corridor, which is essentially where the alignment will go,” WWCC’s manager for regional assets Ben Creighton said.
“But now we can move forward, and we look forward to constructing the path before the end of the year.
“It’s quite a process to get access to a rail corridor, even if it is a disused rail corridor; all rail corridors are considered active, even if they’re not used.
“It did take us a number of years to get through that process, but now we’re through that. We’ve got all our approvals in place. We’ve got the contractor on board, so we’ll look to start work in the near future.
“It’s really great to actually get towards the end, and this is the last large remaining component.
“There’s still a few little bits and pieces that will need to be completed around town over the next couple of months. But it’s really great to get this final link up and running and the construction commenced so that the people of Forest Hill will then be able to have access to active travel as well.”
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