Transport for NSW provides update on Wallerawang Bathurst Bullet stop

One year after the announcement was made that Wallerawang station would be upgraded so it could join the Bullet service, work has yet to begin.

Transport for NSW says the announcement of October 2022 - when it was said that train services at Wallerawang were expected to recommence in 12 months - was ambitious and did not fully consider the changes required.

"Prior to October 2022, Transport for NSW conducted an initial visual site inspection and developed high level costings as part of a feasibility process to reopen Wallerawang station," a Transport for NSW spokesperson said in response to a request for an update on the project.

"Transport is currently building on that initial work and developing a more detailed assessment of scope and costs associated with reopening the station, including progressing site investigations and design development.

"The scope of potential upgrades needed for the station to meet current operational standards and maintain ongoing day-to-day operation is also being assessed.

"The original timetable, announced in October 2022, for completion of the project was ambitious and did not duly consider the changes required to bring a non-operational station up to current operational standards, including Disability Standards for Accessing Public Transport (DSAPT)."

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Member for Bathurst Paul Toole and then-Minister for Regional Transport and Roads Sam Farraway visited Wallerawang in October last year to announce a $7 million upgrade for the station more than 30 years after it had closed.

"This upgrade will mean Wallerawang station will be able to be a timetabled stop on the Bathurst Bullet twice daily train services between Bathurst and Sydney, offering a better service for commuters," Mr Toole said at the time.

"This station has been part of the community since 1870 - and will soon return to its roots as a rail link that opens up another travel option for locals needing to travel to Bathurst or Sydney."

He said the reopening plans for Wallerawang included upgraded parking, access improvements and external station repainting to heritage requirements.

Mr Toole said the platform would also be resurfaced and would get new lighting, seating and signage as well as CCTV for added security.

Lithgow mayor Maree Statham, meanwhile, said at the time that the planned Wallerawang station restoration was a "further demonstration of confidence in Lithgow's future".

"This station is part of our history and has stood to support the Lithgow community since 1870," she said.

"If our community is to continue to grow, as it did then, it is essential that we make getting to school, work or appointments as easy as possible."

Tarana and Rydal were added to the Bathurst Bullet services back in 2019.

AT an event held in October 2022 to mark the 10^th anniversary of the first Bathurst Bullet daily return service to Sydney, Bathurst Rail Action chairman John Hollis shed some light on the hard work that was involved.

"The first step was to get this railway station into the CityRail system. From then on, it was a long, hard slog," he said.

"We had a petition in Bathurst which got about five or six thousand signatures, and after that we had constant communication with the government of the day and it finally came to fruition with the election of the Coalition government."

Mr Hollis said Bathurst previously had "an integrated transport service of buses and aircraft and trains", but "it was pretty archaic, when you think of it, for a growing town like Bathurst that we had to catch a coach down to Lithgow and get on the electric train".