Was there a decent reason why they couldn't simply since the rail corridor.   Being close to water I can see the possibility that it may not have been possible.

Only a very small amount of grooved rail would have been needed if the entire rail corridor had been used.

PS: This thread should be re-titled and moved to the Trams and Light Rail forum. Ther's already a thread Newcastle Light Rail in that forum.

Using the old corridor would not achieve the main objective of connecting the city to the waterfront and improve pedestrian connectivity. You have the same heavy rail corridor with smaller trains on it.

Flyer you have dredged this point up time after time and it still holds no water.
With the fences and walls down access to the beloved waterfront would not have been impeded at all had the light rail run down the corridor.
You need a new drum to bang in support of the corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats you have defended so valiantly

The government have gone against their own Cabinet Paper No. 71 advice - but we know it's all about one thing.

Council voted to build accommodation at Civic.

I got a notification that has the time of 07:36 this morning for this topic, but if their was, it's not showing.

35 million cost blowout on light rail, auditor general.
Inquiry expected.

The government have gone against their own Cabinet Paper No. 71 advice - but we know it's all about one thing.

Try again. The Government were presented with three options, one from TfNSW for using all of the corridor, two from the Department of Planning using part of the corridor and street running at the eastern end. All three options had pros and cons. In the end, they selected one of the options put forward by the Department of Planning. This is not a surprising move as the project is primarily an urban renewal project and the government selected the more holistic approach from the Department of Planning.

35 million cost blowout on light rail, auditor general.
Inquiry expected.

"Inquiry expected?" Have you got a reference to that claim or is it just wishful thinking? The $35 million in $225 million, a mere 15% is nothing and common within a capital works program spending tens of billions of dollars a year. There are numerous projects that exceed the original budget by 15% just like there are plenty that come in under budget. If you had an inquiry every time the budget exceeded the concept budget by 15% TfNSW and RMS would have no time left to build anything.

To make your claim even sillier is that the total budget for the entire project is $650 million and it is still on track.

This is just the ramblings of the Local MP, Tim Crackanthorp who is struggling for relevance. His own Labour collegues in Newcastle Council are supporting the project.

Only a very small amount of grooved rail would have been needed if the entire rail corridor had been used.

PS: This thread should be re-titled and moved to the Trams and Light Rail forum. Ther's already a thread Newcastle Light Rail in that forum.

Using the old corridor would not achieve the main objective of connecting the city to the waterfront and improve pedestrian connectivity. You have the same heavy rail corridor with smaller trains on it.

Flyer you have dredged this point up time after time and it still holds no water.
With the fences and walls down access to the beloved waterfront would not have been impeded at all had the light rail run down the corridor.
You need a new drum to bang in support of the corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats you have defended so valiantly

OK Showtime, how were you going to remove the fences? Were you going to restrict the trains speeds to 10km/h or were you going to restrict access points to designated crossings?

By using Hunter Street, you release land for other uses, predominantly for parks and open space at the eastern end. You also put trams right in Hunter Street which is proven to revitalize shopping precincts. Town Planners are very much in supportive of the plan and would have liked to see it on Hunter Street even further west.

As for corruption, care to name exactly what corruption? Who has received money from the truncation or running the tram on Hunter Street.

Only a very small amount of grooved rail would have been needed if the entire rail corridor had been used.

PS: This thread should be re-titled and moved to the Trams and Light Rail forum. Ther's already a thread Newcastle Light Rail in that forum.

Using the old corridor would not achieve the main objective of connecting the city to the waterfront and improve pedestrian connectivity. You have the same heavy rail corridor with smaller trains on it.

This has been a disaster, using the corridor would of been ok considering the fences would of been gone for pedestrians to walk across the lines anyway.
At least one Councillor is trying to save the corridor in case it is needed in future generations due to the eventual population increase.
The time its taking to build a tram line up the middle of Hunter street is something like five years affect on small business, we won't even see a tram until 2019.
The recent V8 Super cars event proved we need high capacity transport to the foreshore, are they going to run another forty buses on New Years eve?
Why wasn't Civic the terminal if they wanted foreshore access at Newcastle?
Damn right this is a novelty power trip, in hindsight no way this should of been done.

This has been a disaster, using the corridor would of been ok considering the fences would of been gone for pedestrians to walk across the lines anyway. - only if you reduce the train speeds to 10km/h and rebuild the track bed to allow pedestrian access.


At least one Councillor is trying to save the corridor in case it is needed in future generations due to the eventual population increase. - Where exactly will this population occur? Most of the future growth will occur within walking distance of Newcastle Interchange. The one councillor is a Green who opposes anything the Libs do out of principle. The other 12 Councillors, Labour, Liberal and Independent supported rezoning of the corridor.


The time its taking to build a tram line up the middle of Hunter street is something like five years affect on small business, we won't even see a tram until 2019. - Five Years? The first block closure started in September 2017 and is nearly finished in less than 4 months. The entire Hunter Street section will take just over 12 months. The critical path for the project is the stabling yard, which is not even in Hunter Street. So even if it was on the corridor all the way, it would take the same amount of time to complete the project.


The recent V8 Super cars event proved we need high capacity transport to the foreshore, are they going to run another forty buses on New Years eve? - Transport to the Supercars was acknowledged as a great success and that is before Light Rail is in place. Even if heavy rail was in place, you couldn't have used the old station as it was right on the track. Civic was unlikely without a massive rebuild. Chances are trains would have terminated at Wickham or further west anyway. Hundreds of thousands seem to use Moore Park in Sydney with the nearest heavy rail station over 2km away. Your scaremongering is not supported by what actually happened at Supercars or NYE or ANZAC Day.


Why wasn't Civic the terminal if they wanted foreshore access at Newcastle? - Option was considered in 2013 but was not considered the best outcome and would have required massive resumption for platforms and stabling yards.


Damn right this is a novelty power trip, in hindsight no way this should of been done. - Most of Newcastle seems to disagree with you. How is it a power trip? Spending $650 million in Newcastle which has triggered billions in investment. Please explain your power trip theory.

Over recent months it has been necessary for me to visit Newcastle on several occasions; each one via Wickham Station. The new order in the city is now firmly established.

On my most recent visit I waited 15 minutes and 25 minutes for the 110 bus. On one trip there was standing room only. Most of the passengers were first time visitors and were unable to comprehend or understand the new routine for city transport. These waiting times and absence of clarity are an object lesson in discouraging return visits or any visiting at all.

We have always been told by everyone that the rail line had to close because it blocked views and access from Hunter St to the riverbank. How a few masts blocked views and the Crowne Plaza Hotel (now Rydges) on the riverbank did not has never been explained. Over the past few years new buildings have risen between the old railway right of way and the riverbank. These buildings are mostly 7-9 floors high. The last of the available land is currently or about to undergo development.  Included is a 12 storey building on the riverbank. These buildings are mostly upmarket apartments. On the basis of past lecturing none of this will block views of or access to the river from Hunter st.

While Scott & Hunter sts are currently construction zones this situation is only temporary. It is unclear exactly who will use the new tramway.

A strong public advocate of the rail line closure was the Hobbies shop. This is now closing and moving to Broadmeadow due to a serious downturn in business.

It has always been a question with no prepared to give an answer: who is the major beneficiary from the rail line closure?

Over recent months it has been necessary for me to visit Newcastle on several occasions; each one via Wickham Station. The new order in the city is now firmly established.

On my most recent visit I waited 15 minutes and 25 minutes for the 110 bus. On one trip there was standing room only. Most of the passengers were first time visitors and were unable to comprehend or understand the new routine for city transport. These waiting times and absence of clarity are an object lesson in discouraging return visits or any visiting at all.

We have always been told by everyone that the rail line had to close because it blocked views and access from Hunter St to the riverbank. How a few masts blocked views and the Crowne Plaza Hotel (now Rydges) on the riverbank did not has never been explained. Over the past few years new buildings have risen between the old railway right of way and the riverbank. These buildings are mostly 7-9 floors high. The last of the available land is currently or about to undergo development.  Included is a 12 storey building on the riverbank. These buildings are mostly upmarket apartments. On the basis of past lecturing none of this will block views of or access to the river from Hunter st.

While Scott & Hunter sts are currently construction zones this situation is only temporary. It is unclear exactly who will use the new tramway.

A strong public advocate of the rail line closure was the Hobbies shop. This is now closing and moving to Broadmeadow due to a serious downturn in business.

It has always been a question with no prepared to give an answer: who is the major beneficiary from the rail line closure?

I think you have answered your own questions there....the major beneficiaries are the developers. The line closure was always about developers securing the land to build up on with the smokescreen of "harbour views being blocked" and "restricted pedestrian access to the harbour".

As for the Light Rail....I would assume the most regular patrons (after the initial novelty factor wears off) to be:

* Residents based in the East End for access to and from the Interchange (as once the bus interchange is built adjacent to the interchange, there will no longer be buses running East of the Interchange)

* CBD commuters. As stated above, once the buses terminate at the interchange, there will be no other PT access to the CBD (apart from obviously walking)

* University students

* Tourists / Tramspotters / etc

I highly doubt any novocastrians not living or working in the city will even look twice at it. IMO there needs to be a medium/long term plans announced on how the line is going to be extended.

I think if they came out and stated that the next stage of the light rail is to extend it to the Stadium, Mayfield, JH hospital or elsewhere it would silence alot of the LR critics. Once built, it will be one of the shortest LR routes in the world....that's not exactly something to be proud of..especially considering it is costing $220m/Km to build.

Assuming that none of the political parties will ever stump up the funds to extend the Amusement Ride, sorry I mean Light Rail, to westward areas of the city, then I think I can come up with a better design than what we will be getting at the interchange end of things.

This fiasco, sorry I mean Light Rail, is still going to cause major traffic congestion as it crosses Stewart Avenue at the annoying slow speed of around 5 km/h in either direction meaning we have gained nothing at all except the same congestion we had to start with.

My idea would to have been to build the Archaic Tram, sorry Light Rail terminal across the road on the eastern side of Stewart Avenue and have it linked to the Heavy Rail terminus via an underpass with travellators effortlessly conveying passengers as used in airports.
This would remove all blockages of Stewart Avenue and still allow an easy transfer for passengers alighting from the real trains and wishing to partake themselves of a very short journey on the fantasy train, sorry Light Rail. It also would blend in better with the proposed bus interchange on the eastern side.

Whilst I am online I will also give you my one and only experience of the new Terminus, which incidentally I can sum up as a crap experience.
My wife and I decided to take our 5yo grandson on his first railway experience and a visit to the Museum to see the Dinosaur Exhibition so we left the car at Cardiff and commuted to Wickham or pseudo Newcastle as it is. This part worked reasonably well as upon arrival we were herded out of the terminal and down the street to catch a 110 bus which we then alighted from at Honeysuckle close to the Museum.

After viewing the exhibition it was now lunch time but the Museum only has a coffee bar type of refreshment available so walked back to Honeysuckle to find something a bit more suited to kids but that wasn't possible so we all had icecream for lunch. We then waited, and waited, and then waited some more for a 110 bus to come by. While waiting at least 3 empty buses went past all displaying "not in service" signs which was a bit annoying. Eventually we decided we would like to go home on that particular day so we started walking back to Wickham. After 100 metres we discovered that 5 year old's don't like walking and found they are better suited to sitting on someone else's shoulders when the journey is several kilometres long, much to my disappointment and arthritic joints. We never saw another bus so we just trudged it out to the terminal.

Once there I discovered that there were no signs to say what train would be arriving/leaving at what platforms. There was signs displaying this info but they were halfway down each platform which meant walking down and taking potluck on getting it right. Being a Gunzel I thought I was pretty smart in regard to this and seeing as how I wanted to go to Cardiff then this train would be on platform 1 because it was the most logical place for it to be so it could travel straight out of the station and veer left towards Broadmeadow and not foul the triangle at Woodville Junction.  Wrong, wrong and wrong again. After walking down platform 1 I found a Maitland train sitting there so I retraced my steps to the opposing platform to find the Sydney train waiting at this platform, waiting being the imperative word as we  spent close to an hour doing this before it would make a move.

How crazy is that arrangement? Firstly no notification of what train goes where until you have nearly walked there anyway, and who in their peanut size brain came up with the plan to have the Sydney bound trains crossing the Maitland bound tracks, and the Maitland bound trains crossing the Sydney bound tracks, when neither of them needed to cross at all.

Whilst enduring our extended visit to the terminal we decided to supplement our ice cream lunch with something more substantial from the terminal takeaway shop. As anticipated, this didn't go very well either so we selected some chocolate bars and had a discussion with the friendly lady working their on the shortcomings of the shop and terminal. She said business was not very good as there was no parking anywhere so no one was commuting from there at all. She told us she had to park her car in a very dark back street in Wickham, and was very scared each time she had to walk back to it at the end of trading.

Eventually the Gods had decided we had suffered enough with our visit to Newcastle and the train, a real full size one, trundled off merrily dropping us of fully exhausted at Cardiff as the sun went down and us vowing that we will never use public transport again.

Over recent months it has been necessary for me to visit Newcastle on several occasions; each one via Wickham Station. The new order in the city is now firmly established.

On my most recent visit I waited 15 minutes and 25 minutes for the 110 bus. On one trip there was standing room only. Most of the passengers were first time visitors and were unable to comprehend or understand the new routine for city transport. These waiting times and absence of clarity are an object lesson in discouraging return visits or any visiting at all.

We have always been told by everyone that the rail line had to close because it blocked views and access from Hunter St to the riverbank. How a few masts blocked views and the Crowne Plaza Hotel (now Rydges) on the riverbank did not has never been explained. Over the past few years new buildings have risen between the old railway right of way and the riverbank. These buildings are mostly 7-9 floors high. The last of the available land is currently or about to undergo development.  Included is a 12 storey building on the riverbank. These buildings are mostly upmarket apartments. On the basis of past lecturing none of this will block views of or access to the river from Hunter st.

While Scott & Hunter sts are currently construction zones this situation is only temporary. It is unclear exactly who will use the new tramway.

A strong public advocate of the rail line closure was the Hobbies shop. This is now closing and moving to Broadmeadow due to a serious downturn in business.

It has always been a question with no prepared to give an answer: who is the major beneficiary from the rail line closure?

When did anyone say anything about views of the harbour? Plenty of discussion about level pedestrian access. In any case, where in Hunter Street do these new buildings block a view? The section where Hunter/Scott Streets would have a view of Hunter Street, between Newcastle Station and Perkins Street, is all open space.

Over recent months it has been necessary for me to visit Newcastle on several occasions; each one via Wickham Station. The new order in the city is now firmly established.

On my most recent visit I waited 15 minutes and 25 minutes for the 110 bus. On one trip there was standing room only. Most of the passengers were first time visitors and were unable to comprehend or understand the new routine for city transport. These waiting times and absence of clarity are an object lesson in discouraging return visits or any visiting at all.

We have always been told by everyone that the rail line had to close because it blocked views and access from Hunter St to the riverbank. How a few masts blocked views and the Crowne Plaza Hotel (now Rydges) on the riverbank did not has never been explained. Over the past few years new buildings have risen between the old railway right of way and the riverbank. These buildings are mostly 7-9 floors high. The last of the available land is currently or about to undergo development.  Included is a 12 storey building on the riverbank. These buildings are mostly upmarket apartments. On the basis of past lecturing none of this will block views of or access to the river from Hunter st.

While Scott & Hunter sts are currently construction zones this situation is only temporary. It is unclear exactly who will use the new tramway.

A strong public advocate of the rail line closure was the Hobbies shop. This is now closing and moving to Broadmeadow due to a serious downturn in business.

It has always been a question with no prepared to give an answer: who is the major beneficiary from the rail line closure?

I think you have answered your own questions there....the major beneficiaries are the developers. The line closure was always about developers securing the land to build up on with the smokescreen of "harbour views being blocked" and "restricted pedestrian access to the harbour".

As for the Light Rail....I would assume the most regular patrons (after the initial novelty factor wears off) to be:

* Residents based in the East End for access to and from the Interchange (as once the bus interchange is built adjacent to the interchange, there will no longer be buses running East of the Interchange)

* CBD commuters. As stated above, once the buses terminate at the interchange, there will be no other PT access to the CBD (apart from obviously walking)

* University students

* Tourists / Tramspotters / etc

I highly doubt any novocastrians not living or working in the city will even look twice at it. IMO there needs to be a medium/long term plans announced on how the line is going to be extended.

I think if they came out and stated that the next stage of the light rail is to extend it to the Stadium, Mayfield, JH hospital or elsewhere it would silence alot of the LR critics. Once built, it will be one of the shortest LR routes in the world....that's not exactly something to be proud of..especially considering it is costing $220m/Km to build.

Developers benefiting? Can you detail where this land is? The proposal for the corridor, voted through by the ALP Council, has a tiny 0.7 hectares available for development and even that land is narrow and with limited views. Makes the land grab theory seem fabricated doesn't it.

Assuming that none of the political parties will ever stump up the funds to extend the Amusement Ride, sorry I mean Light Rail, to westward areas of the city, then I think I can come up with a better design than what we will be getting at the interchange end of things.

This fiasco, sorry I mean Light Rail, is still going to cause major traffic congestion as it crosses Stewart Avenue at the annoying slow speed of around 5 km/h in either direction meaning we have gained nothing at all except the same congestion we had to start with.

My idea would to have been to build the Archaic Tram, sorry Light Rail terminal across the road on the eastern side of Stewart Avenue and have it linked to the Heavy Rail terminus via an underpass with travellators effortlessly conveying passengers as used in airports.
This would remove all blockages of Stewart Avenue and still allow an easy transfer for passengers alighting from the real trains and wishing to partake themselves of a very short journey on the fantasy train, sorry Light Rail. It also would blend in better with the proposed bus interchange on the eastern side.

Whilst I am online I will also give you my one and only experience of the new Terminus, which incidentally I can sum up as a crap experience.
My wife and I decided to take our 5yo grandson on his first railway experience and a visit to the Museum to see the Dinosaur Exhibition so we left the car at Cardiff and commuted to Wickham or pseudo Newcastle as it is. This part worked reasonably well as upon arrival we were herded out of the terminal and down the street to catch a 110 bus which we then alighted from at Honeysuckle close to the Museum.

After viewing the exhibition it was now lunch time but the Museum only has a coffee bar type of refreshment available so walked back to Honeysuckle to find something a bit more suited to kids but that wasn't possible so we all had icecream for lunch. We then waited, and waited, and then waited some more for a 110 bus to come by. While waiting at least 3 empty buses went past all displaying "not in service" signs which was a bit annoying. Eventually we decided we would like to go home on that particular day so we started walking back to Wickham. After 100 metres we discovered that 5 year old's don't like walking and found they are better suited to sitting on someone else's shoulders when the journey is several kilometres long, much to my disappointment and arthritic joints. We never saw another bus so we just trudged it out to the terminal.

Once there I discovered that there were no signs to say what train would be arriving/leaving at what platforms. There was signs displaying this info but they were halfway down each platform which meant walking down and taking potluck on getting it right. Being a Gunzel I thought I was pretty smart in regard to this and seeing as how I wanted to go to Cardiff then this train would be on platform 1 because it was the most logical place for it to be so it could travel straight out of the station and veer left towards Broadmeadow and not foul the triangle at Woodville Junction.  Wrong, wrong and wrong again. After walking down platform 1 I found a Maitland train sitting there so I retraced my steps to the opposing platform to find the Sydney train waiting at this platform, waiting being the imperative word as we  spent close to an hour doing this before it would make a move.

How crazy is that arrangement? Firstly no notification of what train goes where until you have nearly walked there anyway, and who in their peanut size brain came up with the plan to have the Sydney bound trains crossing the Maitland bound tracks, and the Maitland bound trains crossing the Sydney bound tracks, when neither of them needed to cross at all.

Whilst enduring our extended visit to the terminal we decided to supplement our ice cream lunch with something more substantial from the terminal takeaway shop. As anticipated, this didn't go very well either so we selected some chocolate bars and had a discussion with the friendly lady working their on the shortcomings of the shop and terminal. She said business was not very good as there was no parking anywhere so no one was commuting from there at all. She told us she had to park her car in a very dark back street in Wickham, and was very scared each time she had to walk back to it at the end of trading.

Eventually the Gods had decided we had suffered enough with our visit to Newcastle and the train, a real full size one, trundled off merrily dropping us of fully exhausted at Cardiff as the sun went down and us vowing that we will never use public transport again.

Nice story but the 110 bus does not run from Honeysuckle to the interchange so it is hardly surprising that you didn't see one. They run every 10 minutes along King Street. I find that when I take a PT trip with a small family, I tend to plan ahead for such things.

Still annoys me you can't get into the East end in fifteen minutes and just hop off, stick the bus.

Here we go, round 758

Showtime, all your post does is demonstrate what a complete twit you are. You might like to try reading the rather large destination boards on the interchange concourse which you walked right past.

Nice story but the 110 bus does not run from Honeysuckle to the interchange so it is hardly surprising that you didn't see one. They run every 10 minutes along King Street. I find that when I take a PT trip with a small family, I tend to plan ahead for such things.

I most certainly waited 25 minutes for a 110 bus. There were other passengers who waited for longer. The 10 minutes frequency seems to be a thing of the past. It was not possible to discern any semblance of a firm timetable.

Along Foreshore Drive there are 2 or 3 buildings near Hannel St which have been there for many years; the Yacht Club being one.  From the Honeysuckle development site to Hannel St there are only a few pieces of land not developed and the development of these is starting, including a 12 storey building on the riverbank. Once these are completed all of the land between the railway right of way boundary and the riverbank from Honeysuckle to Hannell st will have 5 to 12 storey buildings; most of them expensive apartments. I have been unable to find any provision for parks  or the provision of trees. The pedestrian accesses from Hunter St will be relatively narrow laneways between tall buildings, something like the laneways of Sydney or Melbourne.

I'm an irregular visitor to this thread and I'm amused how Northern Flyer and tezza are still beating the drum in support of the rail line truncation and light rail shuttle service.  Government spin merchants?  To even the most casual observer, there would appear to be some problem with the co-ordination of train and bus shuttle services at the Wickham Interchange.  Is it that difficult?  As Showtime correctly points out, there will still be traffic congestion on Stewart Ave when the light rail crosses to the interchange.  So what's the point of eliminating the heavy rail crossing?

There was a longstanding plan to construct an overpass of Stewart Ave across the rail corridor, which made complete sense, but this was dropped for some inexplicable reason.  Later Governments of both persuasions are implicitly guilty in not supporting this.  Had it proceeded, a terminus of the heavy rail at Civic might have received broader support than at Wickham, with space for a decent interchange.

The Shooters' Fishers' and Farmers' Party in the Legislative Council gave support to the rail line truncation conditional upon a commitment to extend the light rail line further into the Newcastle suburbs, in hindsight a rather naïve decision, because once the rail line was closed there was no going back, regardless of whether the light rail was extended or not.  I haven't seen any evidence yet of whether any extension is even contemplated.  Enlighten me if I'm incorrect.

Ad Hominem attacks are a sign of a desperate loser, of which there are many in this thread.
In exchange for the Shooters and Fishers Party backing legislation to remove Newcastle’s heavy rail line
the government only had to
complete a business case for an extended light rail network in Newcastle, this they have done. There was no commitment to physically build or extend anything.

Ad Hominem attacks are a sign of a desperate loser, of which there are many in this thread.
In exchange for the Shooters and Fishers Party backing legislation to remove Newcastle’s heavy rail line
the government only had to
complete a business case for an extended light rail network in Newcastle, this they have done. There was no commitment to physically build or extend anything.

Why hasn't the business case been released, otherwise what's the point of it?  Doesn't the public have the right to know?  Perhaps it doesn't stack up and the SFF Party will have egg on their faces.  As I said, please enlighten me.

Showtime, all your post does is demonstrate what a complete twit you are. You might like to try reading the rather large destination boards on the interchange concourse which you walked right past.

I did, it doesn't specify what train is on what platform.
I even went back and read it twice to make sure I wasn't a twit.
So now we are calling each other names are we Tezza with a small appendage!

Assuming that none of the political parties will ever stump up the funds to extend the Amusement Ride, sorry I mean Light Rail, to westward areas of the city, then I think I can come up with a better design than what we will be getting at the interchange end of things.

This fiasco, sorry I mean Light Rail, is still going to cause major traffic congestion as it crosses Stewart Avenue at the annoying slow speed of around 5 km/h in either direction meaning we have gained nothing at all except the same congestion we had to start with.

My idea would to have been to build the Archaic Tram, sorry Light Rail terminal across the road on the eastern side of Stewart Avenue and have it linked to the Heavy Rail terminus via an underpass with travellators effortlessly conveying passengers as used in airports.
This would remove all blockages of Stewart Avenue and still allow an easy transfer for passengers alighting from the real trains and wishing to partake themselves of a very short journey on the fantasy train, sorry Light Rail. It also would blend in better with the proposed bus interchange on the eastern side.

Whilst I am online I will also give you my one and only experience of the new Terminus, which incidentally I can sum up as a crap experience.
My wife and I decided to take our 5yo grandson on his first railway experience and a visit to the Museum to see the Dinosaur Exhibition so we left the car at Cardiff and commuted to Wickham or pseudo Newcastle as it is. This part worked reasonably well as upon arrival we were herded out of the terminal and down the street to catch a 110 bus which we then alighted from at Honeysuckle close to the Museum.

After viewing the exhibition it was now lunch time but the Museum only has a coffee bar type of refreshment available so walked back to Honeysuckle to find something a bit more suited to kids but that wasn't possible so we all had icecream for lunch. We then waited, and waited, and then waited some more for a 110 bus to come by. While waiting at least 3 empty buses went past all displaying "not in service" signs which was a bit annoying. Eventually we decided we would like to go home on that particular day so we started walking back to Wickham. After 100 metres we discovered that 5 year old's don't like walking and found they are better suited to sitting on someone else's shoulders when the journey is several kilometres long, much to my disappointment and arthritic joints. We never saw another bus so we just trudged it out to the terminal.

Once there I discovered that there were no signs to say what train would be arriving/leaving at what platforms. There was signs displaying this info but they were halfway down each platform which meant walking down and taking potluck on getting it right. Being a Gunzel I thought I was pretty smart in regard to this and seeing as how I wanted to go to Cardiff then this train would be on platform 1 because it was the most logical place for it to be so it could travel straight out of the station and veer left towards Broadmeadow and not foul the triangle at Woodville Junction.  Wrong, wrong and wrong again. After walking down platform 1 I found a Maitland train sitting there so I retraced my steps to the opposing platform to find the Sydney train waiting at this platform, waiting being the imperative word as we  spent close to an hour doing this before it would make a move.

How crazy is that arrangement? Firstly no notification of what train goes where until you have nearly walked there anyway, and who in their peanut size brain came up with the plan to have the Sydney bound trains crossing the Maitland bound tracks, and the Maitland bound trains crossing the Sydney bound tracks, when neither of them needed to cross at all.

Whilst enduring our extended visit to the terminal we decided to supplement our ice cream lunch with something more substantial from the terminal takeaway shop. As anticipated, this didn't go very well either so we selected some chocolate bars and had a discussion with the friendly lady working their on the shortcomings of the shop and terminal. She said business was not very good as there was no parking anywhere so no one was commuting from there at all. She told us she had to park her car in a very dark back street in Wickham, and was very scared each time she had to walk back to it at the end of trading.

Eventually the Gods had decided we had suffered enough with our visit to Newcastle and the train, a real full size one, trundled off merrily dropping us of fully exhausted at Cardiff as the sun went down and us vowing that we will never use public transport again.

Nice story but the 110 bus does not run from Honeysuckle to the interchange so it is hardly surprising that you didn't see one. They run every 10 minutes along King Street. I find that when I take a PT trip with a small family, I tend to plan ahead for such things.

Well Northern Flyer, what bus was I on then and what bus was I waiting for to pick me up at Honeysuckle if it wasn't the 110?
I was expecting it to arrive and then we would complete the loop of the City but it just didn't come. The only buses going past for an hour were ones that were not in service


With Newcastle Interchange opening on 15 October, the route for the temporary shuttle bus service (110) from Hamilton Station to Newcastle Station will change to enable buses to pick-up and drop-off customers on Stewart Avenue, directly in front of the interchange.

From the interchange, the 110 will continue along Hannell Street before turning into Honeysuckle Drive and continuing along Wharf Road to Customs House. There will be stops on Honeysuckle Drive, Wharf Road, Watt Street and King Street.

The shuttle bus service (110) map is available here,

For more information on Newcastle Interchange visit Revitalising Newcastle


Taken from transport Newcastle website