<< Peninsula News February 2002 - Ferry cannot compete with trains >>

Ferry cannot compete with trains

I agree with Lynne Bockholt's concerns regarding the imminent four-storey redevelopment of the Ettalong Hotel.

The pro-development lobby continue to use the fast ferry to Sydney as the carrot to entice Gosford Council to throw out the planning rule book.

If the reality was accepted that the fast ferry project does not stack up financially, then some semblance of long term planning could return to Ettalong.

Five years ago as chair of a local youth organisation on the Peninsula, I rang the fast ferry syndicate to voice support and ask if we could help in any way.

They requested that we send them a cheque, as they had no money.

Five years on and nothing has changed.

After innumerable press releases printed without question in The Express and The Sun announcing the imminent commencement of the fast ferry service, the developers are shortly to go to the public cap in hand to ask for money to get the project to square one.

With a commuter train fare to Sydney being $4.50, this service cannot compete for commuter business.

Without commuters, it will not fly.

If the fast ferry was going to get up, it would have been up and running for the Sydney Olympics.

Unless Council wants Ettalong to become Terrigal CBD Mark 2, it needs to start focusing on reality, not the fast buck fantasies of some.

People who live outside the area see its uniqueness clearer than those who look at it every day.

Lynne Bockholt is right when she notes Rene Rivkin saw a uniqueness to Ettalong that is about to be lost forever.

Our grandchildren will not look kindly on the legacy of over-development and all its associated problems, that we now propose they inherit.

When the full story of the fast ferry saga is told, greed and naivety will emerge as the reasons so many people have been taken for a ride. It is a shame it's only been a fairy ride.

Warren Cross, Wagstaffe