THE Glenreagh Mountain Railway has opportunities for business partners to join in on two initiatives.

The Railway has announced the release of a concept plan to have Rail Bikes operating in the Coffs Coast Hinterland.

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These bikes will be the first of their kind in Australia, and are based on successful operations internationally.

The Rail Bikes will come with E-Bike power assist which is commonly found in many modern bikes as well as having safety features to enable a safe and comfortable ride for passengers.

Glenreagh Mountain Railway has completed the hard work and the route has been chosen and design features are based around plug and play to reduce maintenance as well as down time.

What Glenreagh Mountain Railway needs is feedback from the general public and interested business investors to move forward with this project.

This data will assist Glenreagh Mountain Railway to move this project forward to the next step for the full operations of Rail Bikes.

The Glenreagh Mountain Railway has also been impacted by the recent flooding events, but is seeking to turn this into a positive.

There has been major damage to the infrastructure at the Glenreagh end of the line as well as a small mud slip near Lowanna.

The section of railway track between Tallawudjah Creek and Moleton suffered some major damage and the Railway staff couldn’t believe the power of the floods that tossed large numbers of 250kg concrete sleepers and sections of rail downstream, twisting them around trees as if they were plastic pipes.

Further up the hill large landslides and damage to this section brings into question how stable the track is for any future heavy rail vehicles.

The damage at Lowanna is minor and Glenreagh Mountain Railway is applying for Disaster Funding for these repairs.

This has created an opportunity to create a Nature Trail on a section of land from Glenreagh to Moleton.

A Nature Trail will allow for both bicycles and walkers to explore the rainforest, both tunnels and amazing views of that section of track and will generate income and employment for the local community and provide a tourist draw card to the North Coast.

As the land manager for this land, the Glenreagh Mountain Railway is keen to hear from interested parties or businesses who wish to be involved in a steering committee to drive this project forward.

Glenreagh Mountain Railway is willing to lease that section of the land to allow it be community open space for the establishment of a Nature Trail.

Stewart Mackie, President of Glenreagh Mountain Railway said, “We are trying to engage the community in this amazing public ally-owned asset.

“There is the opportunity to create jobs and develop training opportunities for young people.”

“We just need the community and businesses to get on board,” he said.

You can register your interest to secretary@gmr.org.au.

For further information on these types of Trails go to www.cgrc.nsw.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/RT-Questions-and-Benefits-2020v8.pdf

For those interested in the rail bikes, please visit www.transtasmantraining.com/projects to watch the information video and complete either the Market Research or Business Investor Form.

By Andrew VIVIAN