What better way to celebrate the centenary of rail in Coffs than to revive Rodney Degens' idea for a mid north coast commuter rail service?

On the day of the 2011 census only 220 people from the Coffs Local Government Area travelled to work by public transport; 0.8% of the working population, opposed to 13.8% for the state of NSW as a whole. This is an absurd figure for a growing and increasingly (sub)urbanised population, but there is a very good reason for it. Commuting full fare from Sawtell/Toormina/Boambee East to the Coffs CBD by bus will cost you over $100 per week, compared to $34 for a weekly rail ticket from Strathfield to the Sydney CBD (a comparable distance). Coffs Harbour does not have a public transport system; it has a safety net transport system, affordable only to pensioners and schoolchildren through public subsidy.

Look at a map: we have a rail line that passes either through or quite near Nambucca, Valla, Urunga, Raleigh, Repton, Bonville, Sawtell, Coffs Airport, the Jetty, the North Coffs retail precinct, Karangi, Coramba, Nana Glen, then on to Grafton. What would it do to the regional economy if people could easily and affordably move between these centres? What would it do to the household budgets of those who would no longer require one car per-driving-age-resident? What would it do to traffic congestion, drunk-driving and motor vehicle fatality/casualty statistics? How is this anything but a no-brainer?