A plan for Australia Wide Coaches to reinstate the Intercity Express on August 15 could be put on hold due to the resurgence of coronavirus in Sydney.
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Australia Wide Coaches suspended the Orange, Bathurst, Sydney service in mid-March due to COVID-19, and a plan to resume services at the end of May was unable to take place.
However, Australia Wide Coaches managing director Richard Dawes said the company has a government contract to run trainlink services in Orange Bathurst, Parkes and Forbes, that has not stopped.
"We provide the coaches that [feed into] the bullet at Bathurst," Mr Dawes said.
"Currently our bus drivers up in Orange haven't been affected at all but the Sydney drivers have."
He said to help keep them working, Australia Wide Coaches has been sending four Sydney drivers to Orange per week on a rotational basis.
"They come for a week on, week off type thing,"Mr Dawes said.
"Instead of one coach operating the trainlink services, we've sent ones up from Sydney too and our Sydney drivers are up there."
The strategy has also enabled the company to send two coaches on each run to maintain spatial distancing.
Mr Dawe said passengers are given allocated seats to ensure spatial distancing, coaches are wiped down between each run and a fog disinfect is used on the coaches at night.
He said there are also new devices coming that will fit in the air-conditioning unit to help change the air within coaches.
Mr Dawes said the organisation still hopes to resume the Sydney service in August and is watching the use of existing train services as a way of monitoring travel demand.
"Those numbers are very soft travelling from Orange to Bathurst to join the train at the moment," Mr Dawes said.
"We don't really see [the Intercity Express] starting until the airport is open in Sydney.
However, he said passengers also used it for other purposes, including medical appointments.
"We will probably start with smaller buses and build up," he said.
"It just depends on how bad it gets with COVID-19."
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