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The line opens
Rail line connecting Casino with Lismore, Byron and Murwillumbah was opened. Exact date not known. -
Queensland goes south
Queensland South Coast line reaches Tweed, prompting calls in NSW parliament to extend the line to Murwillumbah. Exact date not known. -
Queensland changes its mind
Idea to extend South Coast line dropped. Exact date not known. -
Booyong opens
Branch line opened between Booyong and Ballina. This section of the line struggled for years and was eventually badly damaged in a flood and decomissioned. More broadly the line has become a mainstay of life on the Northern Rivers and one of the main connectors for the region's towns and villages.
Exact date not known. -
Services suspended
Services on branch line suspended after flood and landslip damage. -
Booyong ends
The Ballina branch line is officially closed. -
Motor-rail ends
The popular Gold Coast Motor Rail Express Service, known affectionately as the "Surf Train", is closed. The Surf Train is then replaced by a daily XPT service. -
Ritz Rail
A YouTube video from 2002 showing the Ritz train
The Ritz Rail tourist train starts running services between Casino and Murwillumbah. The service folded a few months before NSW then Transport Minister Michael Costa closed the line in 2004. The last of the Ritz carriages were auctioned off in 2011. -
No freight for you
Freight services on the line officially end. Exact date not known. -
Casino station centenary
Casino train station celebrates its centenary as rumours grow about government plans to close the branch line. -
Costa closes the line
As the Branch Line prepares to mark its Centenary, Transport Minister Michael Costa announces the line has degraded and would cost $188 million to fix. At first he says the line will remain open until the end of the year, but then closes it mid-year amidst claims the Government allowed the line to degrade by siphoning maintenance funding on to other projects.
A PriceWaterhouseCoopers study commissioned by then Richmond MP Larry Anthony finds most of the line is fine and would cost $30m to fix. -
Plans for protest train announced.
In a show of cross-party support, prominent local Labor Party member Sue Dakin and Nationals Ballina MP Don Page pose togther for the announcement of a protest train, which it is hoped will change the minds of politicians in Sydney. -
Protest train departs
An XPT packed full of protesters from all walks of life leaves Lismore Train Station, bound for Sydney where Northern Rivers residents hope to make their voices heard. -
Line damaged further
Flooding across the region causes major damage to the line, particularly in the Byron Shire, triggering the new Transport Minister John Watkins to announce in 2006 it would cost $150m to fix. He offers $75m to fix the line if the Federal Government will match it. -
Nationals commit
The NSW Nationals go to the 2007 election with a policy of restoring the line and running a commuter train service on it, along with a commitment to look at the long called-for extension of the line to Queensland. This policy remains in place after 2007 and continues up to the 2011 election, which put them in government. -
Feasability report released
A report on the line commissioned by the coalition when it won office is finally released, claiming the cost of repairing the line is now up to $900 million and that it would not serve the Northern Rivers effectively. -
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Rail trail - the Byron plan
At Byron Bay the rail corridor is pulled into the debate over the Byron Bypass, and a group of residents suggests the 40m-wide corridor could become a combination rail trail/vehicle corridor and light rail between Old Bangalow Road and the Arts and Industry Estate. One idea put up at a public forum on the rail link is to use old Melbourne trams on the track.
