We have built up positive and constructive relationships with politicians, government officials, industry and community members at all levels and across the whole of the Golden Triangle. However, until now, our work has mostly been happening behind the scenes, due to limited resources.

We’re still run by volunteers, but as you’ll see from our Open Letter, we now want to make these discussions transparent and engaging for both advocates and critics of rail.

This is an incredibly personal endeavour for our whole team. It is a labour of love. As far back as I can remember, I have been fascinated by trains.

One of my earliest memories is of standing near Frankton station at three years old, being asked if I wanted to start the train! I have many more of my aunt and I, who lived near Minogue Park, watching the freight trains in the siding. While I treasure these memories, it saddens me that their common theme is observing at a distance.

I didn’t grow up with accessible passenger rail. These trains which I so admired were only that, objects of admiration; it was almost foreign to me that they could be a practical way of getting around. When I became a teenager and suddenly needed to commute to friends and university, it was a given that travel had to inconvenience me. This necessity was either prohibitively expensive or took far too long; I had no choice but accept it.

In the intervening years, my passions evolved. I am now an honours student in the biomedical sciences; I spend my days reading papers and designing experiments that, little by little, allow us to understand and solve the mystery of us. It’s a far cry from the boy who just wanted to drive big machines, inspired by a certain TV show to be a “really useful engine”. I am still trying to be really useful; it doesn’t take much to see how that got me into science, but I definitely didn’t expect it to bring me back to trains.

I studied politics at university because I wanted to understand the processes of society and how we create public good. I wanted to know how we could be better, healthier, more well-equipped versions of ourselves. Exploring this lead me to Making Rail Work and nearly six months on I couldn’t be prouder of what we have put together.

We have the chance to make a real difference, to be really useful, in the here and now; I have felt this chance in every meeting and discussion we have.

With this open letter, I hope you do too.