On 14 January, 2015
The Echo comment ‘Railroaded’ quoted Don Page’s (Nationals then MP for Ballina) 2004 comments on the closure of the XPT train service on the Casino to Murwillumbah branch line after he’d done a massive backflip:
‘It (closure of the XPT service) is short sighted because the far north coast is a rapidly growing area and this infrastructure is central to our future. In future we will need more, not fewer, trains. We will need more commuter services and more tourist trains; we need to connect into the Queensland system. The removal of the service by the government will mean the line will fall into disrepair. That, in turn will mean all those opportunities will be lost to us’.