Bullet Train Plan for NSW Central West Gains Ground

The push for a new passenger rail service from Sydney to Orange is gaining traction as the demand for housing expands regional development opportunities.

Around 80 stakeholders are due to gather this month, as part of a state-government-led forum, to discuss the potential for a passenger line that would connect the NSW regional city to the capital.

NSW minister for regional transport and roads Jenny Aitchison said they were aware of broad community support for the rail so this was the next step.

“Through this targeted consultation process, including a forum at the end of October, we want to gather specific information on community needs, expectations and potential viability of options, to help inform decision-making,” Aitchison said.

“We know the existing Bathurst Bullet train service provides an important and popular daily return train connection and we are considering all the possible options for Orange and the wider Central West.”

Member for Orange Phil Donato said the proposal for a daily return passenger service would meet the needs of their growing community.

“More than 10,000 people signed Orange Rail Action Group’s petition, seeking to improve passenger rail services between the Central West and Sydney,” Donato said. 

The action group has been calling for a rail line to Orange for just over a decade and finally in 2023 made progress.

▲ Another scenario is a 2018 recommendation for a fast-rail network that would drop the time between Sydney and Orange to less than an hour. 

The group in May agreed the best track forward would be a morning day-return service from Dubbo to Sydney via Orange on the Bathurst Bullet line in May.

In August the Central NSW Joint Organisation of Councils accepted this proposal and added its proposal to “split the faster passenger rail at Orange to go to Parkes and Dubbo”.

The updates on the rail line follows the release of a masterplan by Landcom and the Orange City Council for a 330-home precinct and parkland at Richmond Place that was released this year.

▲ The 25ha of council land at Orange slated for the Redmond Place development. Image: Nearmap

Twenty per cent of homes in the Landcom and Orange City Council development would be set aside as affordable.

This included duplexes, townhouses and low-rise apartments adding to the potential future mix of housing in the regional city.

House prices in Orange outperformed Sydney in the four years to the start of 2021, rising 23 per cent on the prices of 2020 and even further as the popularity of regions grew during lockdowns. 

Regional cities including Orange have bee identified as ideal locations to ease housing pressure from metropolitan areas.