Injunction bid to save the Newcastle rail line

The government is pushing ahead with plans to cut the rail line at Wickham, which will force Newcastle-bound train passengers to change to a bus until a light rail line is built later this decade. The government says the plan, which has provoked fierce community debate, will "revitalise" the city.

Save Our Rail president Joan Dawson on Friday intended to file papers with the Supreme Court, seeking a hearing early next week for an injunction. The group is challenging the government's stance that it does not need an act of Parliament to remove the heavy rail infrastructure.

The group will pay for the action with funds raised for its campaign to stop the rail cut.

It will rely on the Transport Administration Act that says Parliament's authority is needed to close a rail line.

The law states that "a railway line is closed if the land concerned is sold or otherwise disposed of or the railway tracks and other works concerned are removed".

The government has said it does not believe it needs an act of Parliament "at this stage", depending on final plans for the soon-to-be vacant rail corridor land.

But Mrs Dawson said the group had advice this was contestable given the infrastructure was to be removed as well as train services ceasing, and that the government had indicated it would support development on the corridor land not needed for its light rail system.

"We wouldn't go ahead with this unless we thought we had a strong case," Mrs Dawson said.

Labor is publicly backing the test of the government's claims.

"This is a Premier thumbing his nose at the law, the Parliament and the Hunter community,"   leader John  Robertson said.

"I want to improve public transport, not remove it.

"A rail line provides the opportunity to build a world-class city and a connected region for the future.

"The fight to save the Newcastle rail line is only just beginning."

The government is proceeding with the truncation, despite the findings of a parliamentary inquiry that the project should not proceed.

In an interim report issued on Thursday, the committee inquiring into planning decisions in Newcastle said the works should be delayed until the government had produced a "peer-reviewed" cost benefit analysis and shown it had explored alternatives, such as sinking the heavy rail line, constructing overbridges and slowing trains down to install more level crossings in the city centre.

Only a flawed 2009 strategy from the Hunter Development Corporation, which incorrectly stated a university campus would not built in the city centre unless the rail line was removed, could be found to underpin the government's decisions, the inquiry found.

The government had also failed to "engage the community in an open and transparent manner" about its views.

But the report also conceded the committee had received "no evidence" that secret donations made by property developers, including former lord mayor Jeff McCloy, to the 2011 election campaigns of former Liberal MPs Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell had influenced the government's decisions to truncate the heavy rail and install light rail.

The interim findings were issued ahead of the closure of heavy rail services next week.

But the government got in first on Thursday morning, announcing it had awarded a $73 million contract to Laing O'Rourke Construction Australia to design and construct a transport interchange at Wickham, a key part of the project.

Chairman and Christian Democrats MP Fred Nile said the committee was "perplexed" by the government's decision to start removing the rail "given that the construction of light rail is not expected to commence until late 2015 and there is no defined completion date" and "I won't hold my breath for light rail to be installed".

The government should consider the retention of the rail or at least delay its removal until the light rail could be put in place, potentially running down the entire heavy rail corridor, so that commuters weren't left with inferior bus services.

Committee member and Greens MP David Shoebridge said the report "demolishes the flimsy case" for the project.

No cost benefit analysis has been released by the government. Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian and Roads Minister Duncan Gay had refused to appear before the inquiry.

The committee also called into question whether the government has the legal authority to remove the heavy rail infrastructure and wants it to release any advice supporting its claims the approval of Parliament is not needed.

Under the Transport Administration Act, Parliament's authority is needed to close a rail line.

"A railway line is closed if the land concerned is sold or otherwise disposed of or the railway tracks and other works concerned are removed," the act states.

The government has said it does not believe it needs an Act of Parliament "at this stage", depending on final plans for the soon-to-be vacant rail corridor land. It has not ruled out development.

State opposition leader John Robertson said the inquiry showed the government must dump its rail plans.

"If Mike Baird rips up the Newcastle rail line on Boxing Day, he will be thumbing his nose at the people, thumbing his nose at the Parliament, and thumbing his nose at the law," Mr Robertson said.

Ms Berejiklian said the government would not walk away from its spending promises.

"The NSW government is committed to revitalising Newcastle and the Hunter to create jobs and boost the economy," she said.

"The people of the Hunter deserve no less and that is the reason we are truncating the rail line that has divided the city for so long, and delivering light rail."

Government MP on the committee Catherine Cusack labelled the report politically motivated ahead of the 2015 state election.

The inquiry's full report on the issue and changes to city planning controls will be delivered in February.

The Newcastle Herald, with Nicole Hasham