Businessman Ben Neil says the long-term benefits of Newcastle’s light rail project are “massively uncertain” as he contemplates months of disruption and the permanent loss of parking in front of his CBD restaurant.
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Mr Neil set up Newy Burger Co in Hunter Street a year ago but now says he might have looked elsewhere in the city had he known about the loss of parking.
Light-rail contractor Downer EDI closed off a section of Hunter Street outside Mr Neil’s business, between Worth Place and Auckland Street, last week.
On Monday, work will start on Scott Street between Newcomen and Pacific streets, and by the end of next month the entire route will be under construction.
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On-street parking along most of the route will be gone for good from Monday.
Mr Neil, who employs 25 people at his Hunter Street business, said his turnover was down 20 per cent since work started on a nearby section of the route east of Auckland Street three months ago.
“This change and progress is potentially great for Newcastle longer-term. It’s certainly great for developers and the sale of land in Newcastle, but what about the small businesses that are trading along there,” he said.
“We’ve got two sites and a food truck, so we’ll offset that loss somewhere else, but it’s not just the three months we’ve just had of downturn; it’s the three to four months we’ve got to get through now, and there’s no trains on tracks for another 12 to 18 months.
“A lot of people will say, ‘I just stay away from Newcastle on that side.’ I understand that, but unfortunately that’s what kills Newcastle small businesses.”
The state government’s rationale for running the light rail down Hunter and Scott streets is that it will help revive commercial activity.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said in Newcastle last month that she sympathised with businesses suffering hardship but insisted “foot traffic is going to go gangbusters” after the project was complete.
Mr Neil said it was unclear if light rail would help small businesses, especially given the loss of on-street parking.
“It’s massively uncertain … I think it’s very early days to say that this is going to be the saviour of Hunter Street,” he said.
“I think the saviour of Hunter Street comes from development that’s happening and the hive of activity and people wanting to spend money and put in more apartments.
“I’m probably a little bit of a cynic in that it’s cost a lot more money to go down Hunter Street as opposed to going down the corridor. I’m very much aware that the land value in that rail corridor outweighs the additional cost of Hunter Street.”
Hunter Business Chamber chief executive officer Bob Hawes, who was head of the state government’s Hunter Development Corporation from 2011 to 2016, said people were “clearly not coming into town”.
He said a new light rail service had “illuminated” some “backwaters” of the Gold Coast, but it was too early to say how the loss of parking and arrival of trams would affect trade in Newcastle.
“Who knows. Those operational things are things to be tested,” Mr Hawes said.
“We’re seeing what reaction customers are having currently. It’s very hard to predict what reactions customers will have in the future.
“You can go right around the world and you can find bad examples of where this has happened, where they’ve done this sort of thing and it hasn’t had the universal impact they were looking for, and other examples where it’s made a significant difference, and hopefully we end up in that latter end of the spectrum.”
