Transport in Orange: 2023 NSW Election candidates have their say

Regional transport has been a hot topic in recent years, with public services across the Central West often less affordable, efficient, and accessible than in metro areas.

Several major announcements have been made ahead of the 2023 election, with promises for a tap-and-go rail roll-out, increased road fundings, and new infrastructure projects.

The CWD asked candidates for clarification on plans for a Blue Mountains tunnel, expansion of rail services, bus route reviews, road repairs, and further public public transport initiatives.

Incumbent independent Phil Donato, Nationals' Tony Mileto, Labor's Heather Dunn, Greens' David Mallard, and Shooters, Fishers, and Farmers' Aaron Kelly provided comment.

Transport is the topic of this week's candidate Q&A. If you have a question you'd like put to election-hopefuls, let us know in the comments below.

I would like to see them all without road works. Ideally, we can work with local councils to clear the backlog of road work, fill the potholes, and repair the devastation our roads have seen.

Hopefully also improving safety at the same time by introducing barriers in the middle of highways where there currently isn't any.

[The Labor Party says it will not build a Great Western Highway tunnel].

The public transport in our electorate is inadequate. We've got one train a day. The buses in lieu of additional trains are uncomfortable, unsafe for elderly and vision impaired with narrow walkways and steep steps.

There was meant to be new bus routes introduced at the end of last year servicing more areas, but besides the main street I've only seen buses picking up kids for school. Want to go between Orange and Parkes? You've got two buses, one in the middle of the afternoon and one in the evening, isn't practical for a day trip to Parkes without a car. Going from Orange to Mudgee? Once a day, and it'll take you close to 6 hours.

It's a pipedream, but I would like to see mini coach style buses which do frequent trips between Orange and other regional hubs within the region, encouraging people to visit these areas without relying on cars.

It would also be great to see the entirety of Orange, Parkes and Forbes adequately serviced by reliable, safe and accessible public transport.

After meeting with the Orange Rail Action Group, I am a strong advocate for the changes they are lobbying for.

I would advocate for the straightening of the tracks, increased rail services, and a bullet train which disembarks from Orange. It's not just about more trains, it's about comfort, accessibility, safety and reliability.

I would lobby to expand the opal system to Orange, making it more affordable to utilise public transport. It currently costs $24.99 to travel from Orange to Sydney, if you're lucky enough to live in Bathurst it's $6.51.

Fight for funding. [We] need to keep State and Fed Government on their toes and not forgetting about local roads when they are upgrading state owned ones.

The Great Western Highway tunnel will be fantastic, will keep the state moving forward in freight, and will bring tourism in etc ...

More than 252 services have been added in Orange since 2019 [but] more can be done as we see demand increased.

That's why the NSW Nationals are championing regional senior travel cards and regional student and tafe apprenticeship travel cards which covers the cost of fuel as it is harder to get around in the bush as we don't have trains and trams and busses that go everywhere around the electorate.

This is balancing the scales for families in the bush.

We need to see feedback taken on board. I would like to see on demand services increased in our regions which act like a taxi service and go from point to point. This will cover these black spots. The program has been hugely successful in Moree and has just started in Bourke and allows people to book online or phone up in order to get dropped from your front door to shops, hospital, doctors etc ...

This is especially important for the elderly community of Orange and surrounds.

- Recently, the Australian Government announced the passing of legislation to establish a High Speed Rail Authority which will progress the planning and delivery of a national high speed network.

- If elected, I will work closely with the transport ministers and the Australian Government to ensure NSW fast rail outcomes are considered in any national high speed rail initiatives, especially from Sydney to Orange.

- I would like to see on demand services increased in our regions which act like a taxi service and go from point to point

- This will cover these black spots

-The program has been hugely successful in Moree and has just started in Bourke and allows people to book online or phone up in order to get dropped from your front door to shops, hospital, doctors etc

-This is especially important for the elderly community of Orange and surrounds

The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government is committed to making regional NSW the best place to live, work and raise a family.

There is no doubt that the NSW Liberal and Nationals Government has a proven track record in building a strong economy and investing in the infrastructure that matters to keep our state moving forward.

Since 2019, we've delivered $1.8 billion to fixing local roads in regional NSW. This includes $691 million (including $191 million from the Commonwealth Government) to over 550 projects under Fixing Local Roads and $500 million to over 500 projects under Fixing Country Bridges.

The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government is committed to the upgrading the Great Western Highway - we have already awarded contracts for major works to begin in Medlow Bath and Little Hartley, which will transform and improve local, tourist and freight travel between Sydney and the Central West.

We are also seeking feedback on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Blackheath to Little Hartley section until next Wednesday 1 March 2023.

Since 2019, the NSW Liberal and Nationals Government has added more than 3,000 weekly bus services across regional centres including an additional 253 services in Orange.The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government understands the tyranny of distance faced by regional communities and that cost should not be a barrier for people to travel to work, educational classes, practical training as well as essential services, medical appointments, catch-ups with friends and family visits.

As such, we continue to roll out our $250 Regional Seniors Transport Card and we are progressively rolling out our new $250 Regional Apprentice and University Student Travel Card. These cards can be used towards the purchase of fuel and transportation services, such as taxi services and NSW TrainLink train and coach services.

The NSW Liberal and Nationals Government knows the complexity, intensity, and economic impact of natural disasters in NSW is increasing and greater investment in prevention, preparedness and capability development initiatives is needed. Targeted and sustained investment in resilience (referred to as betterment) will enable communities to mitigate and adapt to future risks and save money in the longer term.

This is why a re-elected Liberal and Nationals Government will invest a further $1 billion to upgrade the roads communities use every day in regional NSW, fast-track upgrades to freight pinch points and rebuild our road and transport infrastructure to be more resilient against natural disasters.

The funding commitment includes:

A $400 million injection for Fixing Local Roads to help regional councils continue their work to repair, maintain and seal the roads their communities use every day; $300 million for the establishment of a new Fast Tracking Freight program to tackle freight pinch points on the road and rail network, better connect road and rail with key and emerging freight hubs and increase the capacity and reliability of the network; and $300 million for a Build Back Better program to invest in more resilient State, regional and local road and transport infrastructure across regional NSW.

Since being elected in 2016, and being acutely aware of the need for an improved roadway connection between Sydney and the Central West, one which improves both transport efficiency and safety which will support business and growth in Central and Western NSW.

The National Party's 2007 pre-election promise by the then shadow roads minister, Duncan Gay MLC, that if elected a Nationals in coalition government would deliver a Bells Line Expressway. Having been elected to Government for four consecutive terms since, the Nationals in Government have failed to deliver on their promise to deliver this important transport infrastructure.

I've held the Government to account on this issue, and the government eventually responded by announcing a roadway corridor in north western Sydney to commence this plan. That plan was abandoned in favour of enhancements to the existing Great Western Highway transiting the Blue Mountains, and was to include a tunnel extending from Hartley to Medlow Bath.

Unfortunately, the Nationals-led regional roads ministry announced the their promised tunnel would no longer commence as planned, citing the cessation of federal funding. I will continue to hold government accountable, and seek the enhancements to the highway across Blue Mountains, necessary for safety and unlocking the economic, social and lifestyle potential of our region.

Since the flooding of 2016, I have consistently lobbied the state government to flood-proof the Newell Highway, to prevent Forbes and other communities along this essential supply route from being islanded and isolated during subsequent floods.

The six week isolation resulting from the 2016 flood resulted in a huge economic impact to local business. The state government failed to adequately flood-proof the Newell Highway at Forbes and to the south, and again in recent floods the township was isolated and suffered additional economic hardship as a result. I will continue to seek the Newell Highway be flood-proofed to ensure this vital supply route remains open to service our communities and to minimise economic impact to local business.

Rail passenger transport in the Orange electorate remains an area lacking in investment by the state government. In 2019 I tabled Orange Rail Action Group's 10,000+ signature petition supported by Orange locals, a number representing more than half the local adult population. That petition sought to extend the daily return bullet passenger service to Orange, infrastructure upgrades to the Main Western Line to support improved passenger and freight rail, and commissioning of the new rail fleet.

I led a debate in parliament on this petition, and, disappointingly, the Nationals' Minister for Regional Transport failed to address the issue, and responded soon after by announcing increased bus connection with Orange train station. I will continue to raise this issue and push for improved passenger rail services as requested by the majority of the adult community in Orange.

Any passenger transport service should be delivered with consideration to the needs and expectations of people accessing passenger transport. I would seek to have the service consider a review of their service to involve community consultation and a service reflective of community needs and expectations.

As I have pointed out in my response to the second question, while working in cooperation with the Orange Rail Action Group, I have been vigorously advocating for improved passenger rail services, including extending of the daily return bullet service to Orange.

Taxis are also an important element of our regional transport, which I've strongly supported through my tenure as your state representative of Orange. Local taxi businesses are heavily invested in our community and provide an important service which operates around the clock, and, uniquely, offer important transport options for disabled people in our community. Taxi transport requires drivers and owners to be licensed and monitored, providing additional assurance to ongoing provision of professional transport services in the community.

We need to repair our roads and ensure they're safe for our communities and visitors, but we also need to be smarter about managing our transport network. We should be investing in getting more freight onto efficient rail infrastructure, taking heavy vehicles, congestion and wear and tear away from our highways.

Freight rail is also the alternative that should be explored before ploughing ahead with the Blue Mountains highway tunnel - instead of pushing to have more heavy traffic on the roads through Blue Mountains communities and the World Heritage area, let's look at the alternatives to get freight efficiently to the coast on railways through and around the mountains (eg, by reopening the Blayney to Demondrille lines) while making the existing roadways more efficient useable for light traffic and travellers.

We need more public transport options and the barriers to using public transport need to be removed. This has included things like needing to pay cash to ride the local buses, accessibility issues with the use of coaches in place of additional train services, limited times of operation, and more. After far too many losses of rail, coach and bus services there have been some small positive developments in recent times such as the added bus services in Orange, but we need a concerted effort from state government supporting local councils and communities to put in place additional public transport services where people need them and at regular intervals so it's convenient, user-friendly and will help to reduce congestion, demand for urban car parking and pollution.

The implementation of the new routes and schedules should be reviewed to identify where there are gaps that could be corrected. Locally, we need to plan for continued expansion of the available bus services - while the eastern side of town got some great developments through the bidirectional loops for Bowen and Glenroi, the west of Orange missed out on any major enhancements.

I'd also like to see expansion of services connecting our electorate and city to the capitals (both Sydney and Canberra) through rail and coach services, including extending the Bathurst Bullets to come to Orange and providing more connections from towns and villages into Orange.

We've seen delays and cost blowouts on the delivery of replacements for the XPT fleet and the Bathurst Bullet trains. But even when the new trains do arrive, we'll have 21st century stock running on 19th century tracks. We need a thorough and serious look at what can be achieved through track realignment to reduce travel times between Orange and Lithgow.

We also need more services from and to Orange and the rest of the Central West beyond Bathurst. And we need to look at facilitating more freight rail as well as passenger services, including reopening key lines that were closed and looking at the impact that removing duplicated track in previous decades has had in limiting rail movements.

It's time to make public transport free. Free public transport makes it easy and accessible for anyone to use, any time. It takes away the need for expensive ticketing and enforcement systems, and increased public transport use will reduce what we need to spend on roads and other infrastructure. The state government already subsidises more than 80% of public transport costs - let's just make it 100% and reap the social and economic benefits of leaving that money in the community's pockets.

The Greens will work to ensure that every regional area has frequent, reliable and accessible bus services. We'll fast-track efforts to make all public transport accessible for people with disability, people with mobility limitations and people with prams. And we'll welcome pets onto public transport so that people can take their fur-babies where they need to go - whether it's a park, the vet or to stay with someone while the person goes away - with appropriate restrictions for the safety and comfort of all passengers.

There needs to be another route connecting the Central West to Sydney.

However, the Blue Mountains tunnel project is starting to look like another recycled election announcement from the Nationals.

The SFF support any plans to make our roads better and ease congestion, the announcements need to be followed through on and there needs to be accountability from Government for those decisions.

It's great we have seen recent investment into our bus network in Orange. Now we need more. We need to make it easy for our residents to interconnect between our towns. This electorate isn't just Orange, we need to make sure all the surrounding towns are included in funding announcements.

This comes down to appropriate consultation and making sure we bring the community along when projects like this go ahead. Proper consultation is more than just listening it is responding to those concerns and developing these projects accordingly. If proper consultation was done originally, we would not have these blackspots or reduced access.

If elected I would have the Government address the community concerns.

Speaking with the community and working out what they need is where I would start and take those concerns to the Government. We don't control the purse strings of the Government, but we can consult and raise these issues in Parliament. If there is a need for extra services, I would advocate for the community to see that achieved.

Again, I believe this comes down to community consultation. As a local member on the crossbench, I would not be able to implement programs. But I can certainly advocate and fight for what my electorate needs. Good services and programs come from the ground up, and by being in touch and connected with your electorate.

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