The former copper mining hub of Burra, 163 kilometres from Adelaide, was once a regular stop on the Roseworthy-Peterborough line to Broken Hill.

But the passenger rail service was axed in 1986, leaving residents dependent on road transport to travel around the region or to Adelaide.

Burra Motor Inn manager Paul Henley said the town, along with others once linked by rail across regional SA, now felt forgotten and cut off from vital services.

“You would find that problem with transportation is right across the whole regional districts of South Australia – it’s not just a mid-north problem,” Henley said.

Henley and others among Burra’s 1100 residents have made submissions calling for trains to be reinstated to a state parliamentary inquiry.

The Select Committee on Public and Active Transport was set up in June to inquire and report on ‘The availability and quality of public transport’.

While examining “the role of government in enabling and encouraging active transport” and the use of e-scooters, it will also probe “infrastructure and services in metropolitan and regional areas; the impact of fares and frequency, the efficacy and impacts of on-demand public transport; and re-activation of passenger and freight rail lines in regional South Australia”.

This map details the decline of SA’s regional rail network. Courtesy SA Regional Trains Campaign

Henley said removing the train service to Adelaide left Burra residents no option but to drive or use a bus service which only operates twice a week and takes five hours.

“When a person goes down to Adelaide if they’ve got to wait four days to get back, that means they’ve got to find extra money for accommodation and all that sort of thing while they’re waiting,” he said.

“That’s difficult if you’re on a limited income or a pension. It is very, very important that these services come back because people need the social inclusion. It would also bring a lot more tourism.

“I have talked to a lot of people and they have all told me that if there was a Park and Ride facility for rail services from Burra, they would catch the train rather than drive into town themselves.”

Burra resident Debbie Elliot said the impact of axing the town’s train service was dramatic.

“I am supporting the reactivation of regional rail in the township of Burra,” she wrote in her submission to parliament.

“I lived in the town when the train was active, but left to work in the Riverland for several years, returning after the service had ceased to what I encountered as a dying town.

“The train had been replaced with a bus which only ran three times a week then; it only runs twice a week now which means many are abandoned in the city.

“My 83 years old mother spent 5 hours on this bus just to attend an eye appointment, whilst they pick up others from various locations along the way.”

Henley said the Burra station should not have been allowed ‘to close down and [be] left in such a state of disrepair’.

He also called for the state of the Roseworthy-Peterborough line to be investigated, saying a lease agreement between the state agreement and a US company states that regional rail lines under its control must be maintained in operational order.

Henley said the line is now unusable and could not be made operational within a fortnight’s notice, as per the original lease.

A washed out section of the Burra rail line. Photo: SA Regional Trains Campaign

Greens MP Robert Simms said he initiated the parliamentary select committee based on feedback from his constituents that more needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions from transport, with restoring regional rail an important element.

“There’s been a big push for rail to be reactivated going up to the Adelaide Hills which I’ve certainly been supportive of, but also there’s a push to have a rail network running more broadly through regional centres in South Australia, which we used to have in the past,” he said.

“South Australia is the only state in the country that doesn’t have a regional train network. And that’s got serious consequences in terms of community connectedness.

“It’s really challenging for people in regional communities without the capacity to get on a train and make a direct trip, the cost of petrol is exorbitant at the moment, too.

“It’s something I’m keen for government to act on, this committee is hearing a lot of evidence around that and the impact on regional communities.”

Simms said electrified or green hydrogen-powered trains would be most in line with the committee’s focus on reducing carbon emissions.

“It’s an area where potentially you could see the federal and the state government partnered together to invest in this project, where we will create jobs, it’d be good for emissions, make it easy to move things around from different parts of the state, so I think it would be a win-win.”

The select committee is on target to report its findings in December before it makes a number of recommendations.

“One of the things that struck me is the huge interest that we’ve had in the inquiry. We’ve received a really large number of submissions well over 100 so far- people recognising that we need to government needs to do more to address these issues.”

One former rail operator gave an in-person submission to the committee in July, saying some regional South Australian rail lines were in fact well used before being shut down.

“I used to run the Bluebird service from Mount Gambier, it was a very, very popular service,” Maurice Parry said.

“The railways actually wanted to cut it out because they wanted to close the Mount Gambier line.

“They made the only passengers who could be counted in the trip were those who got on in Adelaide and got off in Mount Gambier or vice versa.

“The ones who used to get off at Keith, Naracoorte, Bordertown were no longer counted so they could justify the patronage, but it didn’t reflect what was actually happening.

“We are the only mainland state in Australia that doesn’t have a country passenger service and it’s an absolute disgrace – you try getting on a bus in a wheelchair and I think you will find it is pretty difficult.”

South Australian Transport Action Group chair John Hill told parliament that any reactivation could utilise existing rail lines, but they would need to be restored.

“We are talking about using existing standard gauge lines, because the freight traffic on those lines is pretty low, so you are not looking at any significant expenditure other than the railcars to provide the service,” he said.

“Our experience at the moment with rail is that all the lines that have been privatised have been passed over in a very poor condition and after doing that, all the truck capacities were upgraded immediately afterward. It’s one of these things where there is a cost-saving in one area of government and a spending in another one.”