Get a map of the Hunter, drop some spaghetti over it and you'll get an idea of the region's rail network.
Off-shoots to disused mines, old tramlines long since abandoned. History buried. Potential oozing through the soil.
Bradley Perrett's essays published in The Herald have provoked much discussion about what our region will look like in 30 years, and what it could look like.
A proposal to at least investigate utilising the old Cessnock rail line from Pelton to Maitland is just one idea for the region.
The rail line, currently in private hands, could be transformed from a disused track terminating at a closed mine to a public transport corridor with residential development popping up alongside it.
Right across the region there are other similar sections of track and real estate that are underused.
Take Cockle Creek for example. Here's a station on the main line between Newcastle and the Central Coast with a Bunnings across the road and Club Macquarie next door. Beside the station is land ripe for some form of housing, whether it be houses or units.
In Sydney they build homes - usually apartments - near railway stations to encourage the use of public transport.
But a key difference between Sydney and Newcastle is that there are still hundreds of thousands of commuters making their way (pre-lockdown at least) into Sydney's CBD every day.
And they're not just office workers. Thousands of labourers and tradesmen from Sydney's west, south-west and north-west commute to construction sites such as Barangaroo and the new Metro rail line developments.
Our biggest employers, such as Hunter New England Health and the University of Newcastle, have multiple campuses sprinkled across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and other parts of the Hunter. We don't have that concentration of workforce commuting into Newcastle each day like they do in Sydney.
Do we want that concentration, that congestion, that daily migration of the masses? I doubt it.
That's where ideas such as developing the Cessnock rail line come in. Light-rail similar to Newcastle's with stations at Pelton, Bellbird, Aberdare, Neath, Abermain, Weston, Loxford, Gillieston Heights and Maitland is just one component.
Other components include developing housing along the line near these stations with commercial developments - that is, jobs - possibly at the Maitland end and the Cessnock-Aberdare section.
It's not enough to simply build it and hope they will come. There have to be jobs and schools near these stations as well as homes.
It's not enough to simply build it and hope they will come. There have to be jobs and schools near these stations as well as homes.
Greater Cessnock and Maitland are particularly well placed to become larger regional hubs thanks to decentralisation of the public and private sectors in Sydney.
Think it's pie in the sky? Think again.
Real estate agents and developers have noticed for some time the number of Sydney buyers flocking to the Lake Macquarie, Cessnock and Maitland local government areas.
These buyers want a house or a block of land to build on instead of a unit they can barely afford to rent. Many were already hot-desking or working from home in Sydney and it's now manageable for them to uproot and work almost wherever they want.
But many of them also need high-speed broadband, printing, telephony and other services and they want a space away from home to actually get some work done without distractions.
That's why commercial spaces strategically placed are just as important as where homes are built. Too often planning in the Hunter has resulted in subdivisions being approved with insufficient thought about transport and other infrastructure.
Ask anyone who has been stuck in the queues in and around Singleton during a shift change or the roads around Maitland during the morning and afternoon peaks and they'll tell you that congestion isn't just a Sydney problem.
Flyovers and traffic lights can only do so much.
Planning that is mindful of not just where people will live, but asks where will they work and learn and how will they get there is critical.
Does this mean we dig up every rail line across the Hunter and stick a tram on it? Of course not.
For a start it's difficult to even find some of these old sections of track, let alone dodge the mountain bikers, walkers and other hazards they seem to attract.
But Pelton to Maitland could be a start. New homes, new jobs and comfortable, reliable public transport.
That's something worth thinking about.
