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 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.