The vocal lobby group has waged a long-running campaign for a return daily rail service to Sydney and won a pre-election commitment from Premier Barry O’Farrell that it would be delivered in his first term in office.

Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian has called for a feasibility study into the service and Bathurst MP Paul Toole yesterday said he hoped the study would be delivered by the middle of the year.

In the meantime, though, RAB member and deputy mayor Tracey Carpenter wants to hear what Bathurst people have to say about the rail system.

She says passenger numbers will be a key factor in the push for a daily return service but she believes they are understated at present.

Cr Carpenter is sure many more people would catch the train to Sydney if services were more regular, more reliable and at more user-friendly times of the day - and they are the people RAB is encouraging to speak up now.

“State Rail is happy to tell us there’s no need for a better service because there’s no demand,” she said.

“But the reason they don’t have the numbers at present is because there are missed trips, the services at the wrong time or people can’t get on the bus to Lithgow during the busy times.

“There must be countless examples across the community of people who have wanted to catch the train but it just hasn’t worked out for them.

“We want to get those people to register their concerns with Country Link and let them know the shortfalls in the current arrangements.”

RAB chairman John Hollis also believes State Rail should adopt a “build it and they will come” approach.

He said RAB collected 8000 signatures three years ago on a petition calling for a daily rail service to Sydney, and had 2700 people fill out surveys offering their thoughts on the service.

“One of the things that came out of the surveys was that people don’t use the rail service because it is such a difficult service to use,” he said.

Mr Toole is confident the feasibility study will deliver good results for the community.

“In August last year, members of the Rail Action Bathurst group met with Transport Minister Gladys Berejiklian and following that meeting a feasibility study was requested to consider all options for additional rail services between Bathurst and Sydney,” Mr Toole said.

“This is something we have been pushing for for a long time and it’s something the community wants so we need to take notice of that.

“Once we get all the options that are available we can see where we should go from there.”

Mr Toole said the feasibility study was a positive step.

“At the moment we have zero service so any suggestions from the feasibility study have to be better than that.”

Have your say

To have your say about Bathurst’s rail service, leave a written submission at countrylink.info/contact_us/contact_form or phone CountryLink on 131 500.

We also encourage people to comment online at www.westernadvocate.com.au. We will make all comments available to Rail Action Bathurst.