The announcement of $1 million being spent on the extension of the Millthorpe railway platform to allow the XPT to stop on request has been warmly welcomed by many residents in the Blayney shire.
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But those that want to see a similar service provided to Newbridge are annoyed their requests are not being heard.
President of the Newbridge Progress Association Dr Wayne Moore believes Newbridge could be re-opened at a fraction of the cost of Millthorpe, and that the excuses that have come from the Minister for Transport Andrew Constance just don’t sit well.
“One thing they said is that we don’t have disabled access to the platform and they didn’t want to have to repair the station,” he said.
“They paint and maintain Carcoar station and trains don’t even go past there.”
One other reason left Mr Moore scratching his head in disbelief.
“They said that the passengers would be disturbed by the train stopping at Newbridge, whereas it seems they won’t be if they stop at Millthorpe,” he said.
Member for Bathurst, Paul Toole, said that the priority for now was organising ways of getting residents from Newbridge to either Bathurst or Blayney to catch the trains from there.
“There are costings that have to be done for the station and that won’t be a cheap exercise,” he said.
“In the meantime I’m looking at some transport connectivity options that will allow the Newbridge community to get to train stations, either the Bullet in Bathurst or the XPT in Blayney, in and around the Newbridge area.”
Mr Moore said that he has received advice that Transport NSW have launched a taxi service that will ferry passengers from either Bathurst or Blayney.
“We have been provided with a taxi service to and from Bathurst or Blayney, but no thought has been given to the provision of access for our heritage trains or special trains to our markets and festivals,” he said.
“We have no public transport services at all.”
