The Member for Goulburn Pru Goward has a wonderful opportunity to cement Goulburn as a railway town with the announcement on Thursday that Police Minister and MP for Dubbo Troy Grant will not contest his Seat in 2019.
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Once the champion for banning dog races and thus seeing in the the Seat of Orange in the process, Grant managed late last year to convince the Libs to build a u-beaut shed in Dubbo to service the new crop of country trains, for which contracts are expected to be signed early next year.
As things stand now, this contract is expected to insist that Dubbo become the service centre.
Goulburn, along with Braemar and Bathurst were originally in the mix to get the new trains’ servicing workshop and given 97 per cent of the current country fleet passes through Goulburn now, we had a marvelous case.
Only one train a day touches bases with Dubbo and to service all the carriages in that city, there will be enormous costly empty running to that location to undertake the task - and over a single line of railway.
Ms Goward – along with the Goulburn Mulwaree Mayor Bob Kirk, and the local Chamber of Commerce need to forcefully pound the Macquarie St desks until the ink wells bounce right NOW to champion the case for Goulburn and not take any more of the foolish, wasteful and some could say, ignorant politics that the Nationals want to play on this issue.
Goulburn has the land (off Sloane St), more chance of getting trained staff and above all, is a much easier place to access rail-wise.