Speaking during a visit to the new car park at Millthorpe station that is being constructed, Mr Toole said that the station was an under developed resource.

“There’s an opportunity for a tenant to move into the old railway station and utilise it for a future business, and I’ve also been lobbied by the community and Blayney council about the need for a platform to be constructed  as a potential stopover for people in the Millthorpe area.

“We want to see more and more people back on rail and this is something that I’m continuing to lobby the minister.

“It makes a lot of sense as there is a lot of growth in this area as a lot of new families have moved in.

Decades old track work has left the line several metres away from the original platform and there are several proposals as to how to remedy that problem.

“One is an additional platform running out from the station itself and the other is to bring the line in closer to the station to allow passengers to get off at the existing platform,” Mr Toole said.

Millthorpe village committee vice-president Russell Keogh said that another possibility was a smaller platform at either end of the station.

“If we could have one of those temporary, concrete platforms, similar to the one that services the Indian-Pacific at Orange East Fork, that would be a very affordable measure to start seeing people once again being able to stop here in Millthorpe,” he said.

Ideally Mr Keogh said he’d like to see the new regional tourism board that is replacing Brand Orange, taking up the cause.

“Orange has been highlighted by the government as one of those areas that the government is looking at to drive tourism,” he said.

“They’re the ones that have the clout and if there’s a political will, anything can happen.”