An exciting new venture is gaining traction in Turners Marsh to build a railway village complete with a pedal-powered rail track rider.
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Members of the Launceston and North East Railway group visited the Turners Marsh railway on the weekend to view a rail track rider on the seven-hectare site and assess the concept plans.
It's proposed four passengers will be able to operate their own rider along the four-kilometre section of the line, from Turners Marsh to Waddles Road, in groups of up to 10, accompanied by a trained volunteer.
The group's business advisor Wendy McLennan said initially the focus would be on assembling the riders to get it up and running, with some planning permits required.
"The group will manufacture and operate these from Turners Marsh where our skilled and accredited volunteers are willing to mentor and train people to give them skills to be job ready," she said.
"The refurbishment of the diesel powered rail car and trailer will continue at Karoola and will come on line together with the rail track riders to operate at different times."
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The next focus would be to build a village. However a development application will need to be lodged with the City of Launceston council, and be approved, before it can proceed.
In the long term Ms McLennan said the plan was to create an iconic tourist destination based around a railway village but funding would be needed.
"It will include a heritage railway station and cafe, an entertainment space for markets and other activities, workshops, as well as an educational centre," she said.
"Tourism and education are central to the revitalisation of our regions. This will be the classroom of the future 'learning in place' - close to the community with lots of skills to be learnt - volunteering, tourism, design, business skills, construction and manufacturing.
"This is an exciting project for the North-East. It has been a peoples project with huge support from the community and our politicians."
The disused North-East railway corridor's future has been a contentious topic, with a Legislative Council inquiry to investigate the site's future last year.
After the inquiry the group took responsibility of the line from Turners Marsh to Lilydale.
One such supporter of the venture is independent Windermere MLC Ivan Dean.
He said the group approached him for support, advice and assistance in moving the project forward.
"I've taken it back to the government on a number of occasions and into parliament to talk about what needs to happen and how we can assist in moving this forward," he said.
"They've got to get runs on the board. There has been a lot of talk, a lot of negotiating and so on but they need to demonstrate to the government, to the council, to the people that they can do this.
"These rail track riders are a really good way to go in my view, a quick way for them to get something moving."
He said it was an exciting project for the group and he believed they could do it, so much so he has made a donation to build one of the rail track riders for the project.
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