More than 1000 people have signed the petition in the past week and the Orange Rail Action Group is confident it will get the 10,000 needed to have it debated in state parliament.

The rail group wants the Bathurst Bullet to come to Orange and start its morning trip to Sydney from here.

Currently it’s taken back to Lithgow to spend the night and then returned to Bathurst for its early morning trip to Sydney.

German traveller Alina Gfroerer had to wait for the coach to Lithgow to catch a train to Sydney this week and said she couldn’t believe Orange didn’t have a direct morning service.

The rail group also wants early commissioning of the replacement XPT fleet, the manufacturing and component supply for the new fleet done here and rail infrastructure upgrades of the main western Line.

In July this year – when the petition was launched – member for Orange Philip Donato said he wanted to encourage population growth in the region and travel between Orange and Sydney was important when it came to encouraging more people to make the move.

“To achieve sustained population and financial growth we need improved passenger rail services to support decentralisation,” Mr Donato said.

Mr Donato said current travel options for travellers wanting to get to Sydney early in the day were not efficient and often involved people driving or catching a bus to Bathurst.

The petition is at TJs Newsagency, Duntryleague, Mr Donato’s office and the Central Western Daily’s office at 90 Lords Place.