Edited 09 Mar 2020 17:40, 7 months ago, edited by Upven

It's no different to the old Healesville line, where we now have (with considerable Council assistance) an excellent cycling/walking track to Yering (with the promise of more to come).  This line was equally as degraded/unusable/unrestorable as was Nyora-Leongatha, but not a word of protest about the tracks being ripped up, although in terms of potential use, Healesville has a larger population than Leongatha.  (About 6,600 and 5,200 respectively, according to the 2016 census.)

Where a railway line ceases to be viable and is closed, conversion to a rail trail is one of the best alternatives for future use, and it should be done promptly, before the corridor is compromised in some way (e.g. Mt Lilydale College on the Warburton trail).

There is an old saying "use it or lose it".  One wonders if passenger numbers had been much greater, whether the Leongatha line (or Healesville for that matter) would have overcome their physical difficulties and survived.

honerstly..............misinformation.................the rail trail around the back of Mt Lilydale College was never compromised, the land was returned to its original owners that had the land prior to the Warburton Line being built....................

Apologies, I was not aware of that.  The college was established in 1896, but it's not obvious if it owned the future rail corridor at that time.  The railway was opened in 1901.    

On looking for more information, I found a Wikipedia site that says "the trail deviates around the north, east and south of Mount Lilydale Mercy College. The school currently leases the land formerly occupied by the railway". Another Wikipedia site says "the Warburton line right-of-way is intact, except for a short section leased to Mount Lilydale Mercy College."   Another description of the former Warburton line says "There is however a missing section of this former rail line that is not available to the public. This is the section between Anderson St and the Maroondah Highway in Lilydale, due to a lease from the Mount Lilydale Mercy College."

All of these seem to suggest that the college  is not the original owner, but is leasing the land (although of course you can't always believe anything on the Internet).  If that's the case, who is it leasing from and under what terms?  Please note I am not disputing anything, just trying to establish the current situation.