In practice, NSW Trainlink have partnered with Australia Wide Coaches so that the existing daily Orange-Sydney-Orange coach service will now divert into Bathurst Railway Station to connect with the new train.
This is a problem for two reasons:
One, that coach used to provide a valuable service for people wanting to leave Sydney at 5pm and be back in Orange at 9.15pm.
Now that it has shifted to meet the train, anyone wanting to get to Orange from Sydney after 4pm will need to take the 5.47pm Bathurst Bullet and a coach that arrives into Orange at 10.45pm.
GOING LOCO: The second Bathurst Bullet service is proving popular.
That makes it a late finish.
More problematically, the ‘new’ coach service is operated by a business that runs a service in direct competition to the train, and it shows.
The existing coaches connecting Orange and the Bullet have six and seven minutes between bus and train arrival and departure.
Just enough time to get off one service and onto the next.
The new train for Bathurst could be complemented by a prompt coach departure to Orange and beyond … this would give locals greater choice when travelling down to Sydney. Reader Jed Coppa
The new coaches will have 20 and 23 minutes.
This means an unnecessary extra 15 minutes for passengers waiting at Bathurst Station.
A small difference but one that makes the direct Orange to Sydney coach that little bit more appealing by comparison.
Passengers taking the new coach to the Bullet 2 will have a choice to make.
The Bathurst Bullet 2.0 commenced to some fanfare last Monday and, based on a single casual observation, seems to be well patronised. Some 50-odd people stepped off the new early train at Bathurst Station on Friday night and they seemed to be pleased to be arriving home in time for dinner. The first passengers past the Opal readers could be overheard yearning to be pulling into Orange station, instead. The car park was completely full.
In fact the only place any mention of the bus has turned up so far is in the Central West Daily’s article (behind a paywall) and discretely mentioned on the website of Australia Wide Coaches, a local bus operator that runs contract routes for NSW Trainlink. Aust Wide don’t specifically mention the new service they’ll be operating. Instead, the astute observer will note that their long running daily bus service between Orange and Sydney will run to an altered timetable from Monday the 14th of October. That’s the same day that CWD reported the Bullet 2 coach commencing. Presumably the official announcement from TfNSW will appear in the coming few weeks.
Sadly, from this investigation it seems that the coach connection from Orange to Bathurst has been shoehorned onto an existing service in such a way that will make the Bullet 2.0 pretty much meaningless for residents of the Colour City.
No new options heading East
Prior to the launch of the Bullet 2, weekday travellers from Orange to Sydney had the following options:
4:55am NSW Trainlink coach to Bathurst then Bullet to Central, arriving at 9:27am. Travel time: 4:32
6am Aust Wide coach direct to Central, arriving 10:15am. Travel time: 4:15
9:10am NSW Trainlink coach to Lithgow then train to Central, arriving at 2:15pm. Travel time: 5:05
11:10am NSW Trainlink coach to Lithgow then train to Central, arriving at 3:48pm. Travel time 4:38
1:25pm NSW Trainlink coach to Lithgow then train to Central, arriving at 6:20pm. Travel time: 4:55
3:52pm XPT to Central, arriving at 8:48pm. Travel time: 4:56
5:05pm NSW Trainlink coach to Lithgow then train to Central, arriving at 10:21pm. Travel time: 5:16
The 7:35am Bullet 2 departure from Bathurst could mean a bus leaving Orange at 6:40am would see passengers arriving at Central at 11:19am (Travel time 4:39). This would allow a choice of 3 solid options all arriving at Central before noon; the early train, the not-quite-so-early quicker private coach or the later train.
Instead of a new bus route being added, the private coach service will be altered to depart 30 minutes later and function as both a direct bus to Sydney and also a feeder bus for the Bullet.
From mid October onwards, options for weekday trips from Orange heading East will likely look like this:
4:55am NSW Trainlink coach to Bathurst then Bullet to Central, arriving at 9:27am. Travel time: 4:32
6:30am Aust Wide coach direct to Central, arriving at 10:30am. Travel time: 4:00
6:30am Aust Wide (likely subsidised by Trainlink) coach to Bathurst then Bullet 2.0 to Central, arriving at 11:19am. Travel time: 4:49
9:10am NSW Trainlink coach to Lithgow then train to Central, arriving at 2:15pm. Travel time: 5:05
11:10am NSW Trainlink coach to Lithgow, then train to Central, arriving at 3:48pm. Travel time: 4:38
1:25pm NSW Trainlink coach to Lithgow then train to Central, arriving at 6:20pm. Travel time: 4:55
3:52pm XPT to Central, arriving at 8:48pm. Travel time: 4:56
5:05pm NSW Trainlink coach to Lithgow then train to Central, arriving at 10:21pm. Travel time: 5:16
They’re almost identical. The only difference is that now travellers can choose between the quicker and more expensive private bus service, or get off at Bathurst and change onto a cheaper train. They’ll save somewhere in the vicinity of $25 at the price of an extra 50 minutes travel time.
In the evening it’s a similar deal. Passengers can board the Bullet at Central at 3:05 or the coach at 3:40; either way they’ll be in Orange at 8.
The other notable change is that the new Aust Wide coach timetable shaves 15 minutes off the journey between Eastern Creek and Central, presumably from reduced traffic thanks to the new M4 East and the slightly later departure time. Even more incentive to stick with the coach.
The makings of an interchange conspiracy theory
It seems like the connecting coach service has been timed to actually disadvantage train users, perhaps to make the coach seem even more preferable by comparison. Have a look at interchange times between the Bullet 1 coach and the Bullet 2 coach on weekdays.
Eastbound
Bullet 1
Bullet 2
Bus arrives Bathurst
5:39am
7:15am
Train leaves Bathurst
5:46am
7:35am
Interchange Time
7 minutes
20 minutes
Westbound
Bullet 1^
Bullet 2
Train arrives Bathurst
9:33pm
6:47pm*
Bus leaves Bathurst
9:39pm
7:10pm
Interchange Time
6 minutes
23 minutes
^Behold the confusion of having the Bullet 2 arrive several hours before the Bullet 1. Don’t blame me, this is how TfNSW do it. *except Wednesdays when the Bullet runs an hour later thanks to the Indian Pacific
The existing Orange – Bathurst coach has been happily chugging down the Mitchell Highway for 4 years, rarely (if ever) missing a connection. Why does the new coach include insanely long 20+ minute interchanges? Bathurst Station is not the sort of place you need a map to navigate. The distance from the platform to the bus stop is about 20 metres and is entirely at grade. Why would anyone timetable an interchange like this?
It seems strange until you consider that the operator of the bus service makes money from people choosing not to leave the bus at Bathurst and instead remain onboard all the way to Sydney. By having an interchange time 15 minutes longer than necessary, staying onboard starts to look that little bit more worthwhile.
Business as usual
Last week I said that the Bullet 2 could be the perfect opportunity to tweak outdated coach timetables and make a serious effort at improving public transport between the cities of the Central West.
It could still be too early to say exactly how the Orange coach service will be implemented, but all signs at this stage point to a cop out from the State Government that will mean a continuation of the status quo. We’ll have to wait and see.
Last mile problem (noun): A transport planning concept referring to the cost and difficulty of getting passengers from their home to transport nodes and from transport nodes to their final destination.
A disproportionately large amount of time, money and energy is spent trying to solve these problems.
In Sydney, solutions include ever larger (but somehow always over-capacity) park and rides. Overseas, solutions include promoting cycling by decriminalising riding, improved pedestrian infrastructure and reliable and frequent connecting feeder buses.
Country mile (noun): A bloody long way.
A Bullet for Bathurst…
The introduction of a fast-ish express train between Bathurst and Sydney, affectionately dubbed the ‘Bathurst Bullet’, in 2012 marked a change of direction for public transport in the Central West of New South Wales. Long neglected by successive governments, intercity transport west of the divide at the time consisted of the single daily Western XPT and a hodgepodge of coach services.
That changed, like quite a lot else in the state, with the 2011 landslide election of the O’Farrell government. The shift to the Coalition was no more pronounced than the 36% swing to the Nats’ Paul Toole in Bathurst. The local boy quickly came good on the promised train.
The Bathurst Bullet provided a morning inbound and evening outbound train service, meaning residents of Bathurst could effectively commute to Sydney for the day, be it for appointments, meetings, shopping or whatever. Prior to this travellers needed to prebook onto coach services that connect with Sydney Trains at Lithgow. The Bullet meant a quicker, more reliable, more convenient and cheaper trip.
The Bathurst Bullet ready for take off at Bathurst Station. Photo courtesy of Aaron Pearce @pearcysphotos
The Bullet has been a quiet success and so, in the spirit of small, incremental improvement, tomorrow, the 16th of September 2019, the Bathurst Bullet 2.0 (don’t blame me, TfN’s media release called it that…) begins operation. The updated timetable will allow commuters the choice of a 5:45 or 7:35am departure from Bathurst and a 6:45 or 9:35pm arrival into Bathurst of an evening.
…and only Bathurst.
Unfortunately, when the Bathurst Bullet 1.0 (So far I’m the only using this handy moniker) launched it wasn’t especially useful for those travelling from any further west than Bathurst. The first coach of a morning from Orange to Lithgow, connecting with Sydney Trains services, arrived in Bathurst just ten minutes after the Bullet left, leaving residents of Orange to catch the all stations train from Lithgow. This made an already arduous journey take 30 minutes longer than it needed to. It seems a shame that after all the effort that went into sourcing the rolling stock, managing staffing and scheduling for the Bullet, it took another 3 years to adjust the coach timetable by 20 minutes to allow a connection.
This time around it looks like the same mistakes are destined to be repeated. With the Bullet 2.0 starting tomorrow, no announcement has been made regarding connecting coach services. The Federal MP for Calare, Andrew Gee, has backed the call to avoid repeating history. Hopefully he’ll have his Nationals colleague Paul Toole’s ear, as the man who got the original Bullet off the ground is now the state minister for Regional Transport. The Nats are rightfully claiming the Bullet as a big win, but make no mention of connecting coaches form further afield. The State Member for Orange, Shooter and Fisher Phil Donato, supports it too, although that might be because he misunderstood the use of the word ‘bullet’.
Number Crunching
Until we (hopefully) hear from TfN about the coach timetables, here’s what the Bullet 2.0 means for residents of towns west of Bathurst.
From Monday to Friday the Bathurst Bullet 1.0 leaves Bathurst at 5:46am stopping at Lithgow at 6:55. The 2.0 will then leave Bathurst at 7:35am stopping at Lithgow at 8:42.
The first bus from Orange was updated in 2015 to depart at 4:55am to connect with the Bullet. Funnily enough, because of the slow winding track alignment between Bathurst and Lithgow and the relatively direct highway, the bus drops passengers from Orange at Bathurst and then has time to pick up passengers along the highway, and even detour into Wallerawang, before arriving in Lithgow with plenty of time for passengers to interchange onto the same train it connected with at Bathurst. It’s good to see Transport for NSW keeping up the long Australian tradition of ironic nicknames.
The next Trainlink coach doesn’t leave Orange until 9:10am, having originated in Parkes at 6:35. It won’t get to Bathurst until 10:05am, much too late for the Bullets. There is, however, a local Buslines route 530 service leaving Orange at 6:45am on school days, arriving in Bathurst at 7:30am. This is tantalisingly close to connecting perfectly with the Bullet 2.0, except the bus stops several blocks away. No dice.
The morning bus from Grenfell leaves at 5:30am, stopping at Cowra at 6:18 and arriving in Bathurst at 8:09, too late for either Bullet.
The first bus from Gulgong leaves at 6:20am, stopping in Mudgee at 6:50 before arriving in Lithgow at 9:11 – oops! Just half an hour too late to connect to the Bullet 2.0. Passengers will have to connect to the all stations train and cop an extra 20 minute travel time.
Two buses leave Oberon each week bound for Mt Victoria. An early service on Tuesdays and a later service on Fridays. Both are timetabled to connect with all stations trains and thus arrive at Mt Victoria 22 and 35 minutes too late respectively for the Bullet 1.0 and 2.0.
A high(ish) speed future
It seems crazy that it took 3 years after the introduction of an AM express train from the Central West to make a small timetable modification to a coach service to connect with it. It seems crazier still that residents are in the exact same position again.
Local rail advocacy groups in Dubbo and Orange have been lobbying for an AM express service from their towns, be it in the form of an inbound AM XPT or the extension of the Bathurst Bullet. Alliterative names for an Orange or Dubbo based service are still in the works. Both ideas have merit. Hopefully something similar will be outlined in the Fast Rail Strategy due later this year or in tandem with the relocation of the regional fleet maintenance yards to Dubbo in 2023.
Until then though, the hard work of getting the Bullet 2.0 is done. Only minor tweaks need to be made to spread the benefit of the new service much further into the state. Bringing the Grenfell/Cowra bus and the Gulgong/Mudgee bus forward to connect with the Bullet 2.0, improving frequency on routes connecting regional centres, adjusting timetables to minimise unnecessary wait time and working in partnership with local bus operators to facilitate timed interchanges could see the Bathurst Bullet become more than just a quick train for one town. It could be the beginning of the makings of a Central NSW public transport network.
