Jeez, I don't normally agree with a lot of things you say Plague, but in this case you ask a lot of great questions and I couldn't agree more.. (Although I do realise you could be trolling, hahaha, and if so, well played sir)
I live right in town, work in East Maitland, booze at the Tenzo, go to Sydney to concerts, visit WLG on the coast to slap him when he is worshipping Hutcho, etc..
The rail line got a fair bit of use from me..
Losing the line and replacing it with piss smelling buses has made it a real fvcking inconvenience to get about doing things.. (Or at least, its made me have to stay sober to a legal limit)
It's not so much the cutting of the line that has my balls aching (as having it cut is more of an inconvenience, and the chicken-nuggets hurting could be from a bad woman), its the dodgey way the deals have been done when McCloy was in power, who is conveniently a major developer with his digits in everything in this town..
Who owns and developed the Lucky Country Hotel (a pub I used to frequent 10 years ago when it actually had character - admittedly I refuse to go in there since its been reopened)?? Guess whose idea it was to put a light rail stop just out the front of this newly developed hotel? Who would benefit from that?
tl;dr
If these decisions were made in the benefit of our city, then fair enough I guess. The fact is they were made to line peoples pockets.. Fvck that..