With an overhaul to the regional rail fleet on the horizon, he has suggested using the state's retiring trains to provide shuttle services between country cities, including a possible daytime run connecting Orange, Bathurst and Lithgow.

The Central Western Daily reported this week NSW Minister for Regional Transport and Roads, Jenny Aitchison, met with the Orange Rail Action Group (ORAG) and Orange City Council in recent months to discuss options to deliver direct morning trains from Orange to Sydney.

One of those options is having the Bullet service start at Orange.

Mr Toole said the NSW Government should look at increasing services across regional communities rather than changing existing services.

"Extending the Bathurst Bullet to Orange is not the answer," the Bathurst MP said.

"It shouldn't be at the expense of the two services that are already operating out of Bathurst.

"The answer is looking at the new train fleet that will be coming on board in future years, which will see more inner city fleet trains."

The Bathurst Bullet daily service to Sydney and return started in 2012 after years of lobbying.

It proved such a success that, in 2019, the NSW Coalition announced a second daily return service to Central with additional stops at Tarana and Rydal.

Mr Toole said if the Bathurst Bullet was extended to Orange he feared passengers could be on their feet for hours.

"It's a bit lazy to say 'we want that service to be brought down the road'," he said.

"[The Bathurst Bullet] is well-patronised already.

"If that particular train goes into another regional area, people will be standing on the train for hours on end. That's unacceptable."

Industrial issues and the logistics of stationing a train in Orange overnight have been flagged as key challenges to a proposed extension of the Bullet to the colour city.

A petition backing the project from the Orange Rail Action Group in 2018 attracted more than 10,000 signatures and was raised in parliament.

The group previously estimated at least 20,000 Orange residents would use the service every year if it was available.

WITH an overhaul to NSW's regional rail fleet coming in the near future, the old XPT, XPLORER and Endeavour (the Bathurst Bullet's rolling stock) will all be replaced.

But Mr Toole doesn't want these trains to rust on the scrapheap.

He'd like to see them get a second chance, being used as shuttle runs between regional communities on a regular basis.

"Instead of scrapping them, we should be seeing what opportunities there are in giving them a second chance, to be able to use them to connect towns together," he said.

"We should be trying to look at keeping the better ones in operation for as long as possible, to get more services out into the bush.

"It might be a train service that connects Orange, Bathurst and Lithgow throughout the day.

"It might not be every day, but it could be a service that runs multiple times a week, through major towns, and picks up people at some of our villages."