After a petition gained 236 signatures, the proposal of a rail trail for Wagga is now on the agenda for Monday's council meeting.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And Lisa Glastonbury, chair of Wagga Rail Trail Inc, hopes the current council will give the green tick for Wagga to start developing rail trails within the region, before the September election.
"What we have put forward is that Wagga City Council give in principle the support for the development of rail trails in the local Wagga Wagga government area," she said.
"That's what we are hoping for, NSW is the only state that doesn't have any rail trails on disused railway lines, other than a pilot trial that was recently developed at Tumbarumba.
"The pilot trail at Tumbarumba which has been open for just over 12 months and the NSW government have acclaimed it as a huge success and now they are open to the development of more trail rails in NSW.
"We would like Wagga City Council to agree it's a good thing and to acknowledge that they are open to developing rail trails in our region."
Due to the amount of interest in the development of a rail trail, which has been in the works for quite some time, Ms Glastonbury said she has confidence a rail trail for Wagga will get the tick of approval.
"I am reasonably confident, the Wagga local community have shown over a considerable period of time that they are in favour of this," she said.
"The Wagga City Council have started developing a network of active travel pathways around the city, they are being well utilised, particularly now we have COVID and people are looking for opportunities for passive recreation that they can do which is available all the time, safe and which families can use together.
"Those pathways are being used enormously, more than the council I think expected and we are asking them to build off that and Tumbarumba's success and build further trail rail's in our region."
The Chair for Rail Trail for Wagga Inc said a rail trail will be huge for the community, offering a safe place for cyclist, walkers, runners and even sporting events such as marathons to be held.
"They are accessible for all members of the community, people with a disability, the elderly, families, young children.
"Generally there are multiple access points, you can get on and off a different locations. So people can use it for long sections, short sections. But the most important thing is that they are safe."
The council will deliberate on Monday on whether Wagga will get access to its very own rail trail. The petition was sent to the mayor on July 12.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark dailyadvertiser.com.au
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletter