One town is getting its station back. Here are five more that should be next

The old platform, once a bustling link for local families and workers, sat quietly collecting dust, a relic of when trains were once kings of transport.

Now, that history is being rewritten.

Thanks to a $7 million NSW Government investment, contractors are currently underway restoring the historic Wallerawang station.

By late 2026, the Bathurst Bullet and regional rail services will stop at Wallerawang for the first time since 1989.

So, if Transport for NSW can restore and reopen Wallerawang, why stop there?

Reconnecting key towns wouldn't just take pressure off the roads, it could unlock new trade, healthcare access, and weekend tourism.

If Wallerawang is the blueprint, here are the five Central West stations that deserve to be next in line.

Stockinbingal-Parkes line

With the Forbes Shire population pushing 10,000, it's crazy to think that the region does not have any passenger rail services.

It's so dire that the Forbes station hasn't had any passenger services for over half a century ago, closing in 1974.

The station was the home of the Forbes Railway Visitor Information Centre until 2023, but since then it has been abandoned.

In 2026, as part of the Inland Rail project, the station awning was trimmed and the track was realigned to increase both vertical and horizontal clearances, to allow the passage of 6.5-metre high double-stacked freight trains.

Just 30 minutes outside of Orange, Molong has grown considerably as families seek a regional lifestyle while also avoiding the bigger centres.

However, as traffic between Molong and Orange increases, the lack of a passenger rail stop forces almost every worker and student onto the Mitchell Highway.

Reopening Molong station as a passenger stop on the existing Main Western line would turn it into a thriving commuter hub, providing residents with reliable access to major medical facilities, schools, and employment in Orange and Bathurst.

But in 2021, the Molong Rail Action group abandoned its push for a passenger service between Molong and Orange.

The founder of the group and current Cabonne councillor, Aaron Pearson, conceded that a regular service was probably not "financially viable".

The group has pivoted and turned its focus to having the station reopened for the Broken Hill Outback Explorer train, which operated weekly to and from Sydney and Broken Hill.

Mr Pearson said Molong railway station should be in the same category as Millthorpe railway station, which reopened as a request-only stop in 2019.

The station was opened in 1885 and closed in 1992, with the station the current home of the local library.

Blayney-Demondrille line

Tourist rides are exceptionally popular across NSW, with the likes of Kandos-Rylstone and Oberon benefiting from funding to repair disused tracks.

So why can't that work for Carcoar?

Getting the entire Blayney-Demondrille line back open is a massive task, but getting the almost 20 kilometre stretch from Blayney to Carcoar would be quite feasible.

And with Carcoar being one of the oldest and best-preserved 19th-century villages in the country, the station is an ideal candidate for reopening.

Using Carcoar's station for specialised steam trains, weekend heritage shuttles, and boutique rail tours would create an instant weekend attraction.

Blayney mayor Bruce Reynolds told ACM in June he has held talks with Transport for NSW previously about a partial reopening of the line to Carcoar.

"If there's an interest for tourists just beyond Carcoar, that could be looked at," he said.

"Blayney is happy to support something like this, but council doesn't have ... resources to support it financially."

Blayney-Demondrille line

Few towns carry as much strategic potential as Cowra.

Positioned on the historic Blayney-Demondrille line, Cowra sits directly between the Central West and the Riverina regions.

And it means residents without a car face a complex web of sparse coach connections to reach medical specialists in Sydney, Orange, or Canberra.

Restoring passenger rail through Cowra solves that isolation in a single move, giving residents a safe commute, while taking heavy B-double freight pressure off regional roads.

But there are many logistical issues in getting Cowra and the entire line back open.

Following flooding in 2011 between Cowra and Young, the line remains unusable for most of its length and it seems Transport for NSW has little interest in getting the line back open.

Transport for NSW told ACM in June that previous investigations did not identify a strong case for investment to reopen the Cowra lines and no new information gathered through development of the Central West and Orana Strategic Regional Integrated Transport Plan justified re-examining previous investigations.

Cowra has been closed to passenger services since 1988, but the Lachlan Valley Railway does operating tourist rides.

Gwabegar line

Mudgee is one of the state's premier food, wine, and weekend getaway destinations, yet every single visitor arriving from the big smoke is forced onto the roads.

Reopening Mudgee station to passenger services, as well as running dedicated weekend passenger services from Sydney, would be an immediate economic win.

It would allow Sydney tourists to travel safely, without the worry of driving through the Blue Mountains and up the winding Castlereagh Highway.

But one of the biggest hurdles to getting Mudgee back open is maintenance.

Unlike Wallerawang, where train services have been running past it despite its closure, Mudgee station closed in 1985, with all traffic between between Rylstone and Gulgong, an 84-kilometre stretch of track on Gwabegar line, having been closed since 2007.

So it's not as simple as reopening Mudgee station.

But there are other hurdles that could stop the trains returning.

Councillors on the Mid-Western Regional Council voted at a meeting in December 2025, to accept the outcome of a survey into a rail trail, alongside the commencement of a formal feasibility study into the project and to allocate $50,000 for a grant into the study.

If the project went ahead, it would see the stretch of track between Rylstone and Gulgong converted for public recreation use.