Councillor Vanessa Keenan floated the idea of having a daily rail commuter link between Wagga and Albury last month, which would allow people to live outside the cities and work business hours.

But member for Wagga Daryl Maguire poured cold water on the idea, saying proponents would need to make a business case to justify the costs.

Former Cootamundra man and now Wagga resident Keith Holder thinks towns north of Wagga would also benefit greatly from the proposed service.

“Lots of people come to Wagga from Cootamundra, Harden, and Young for medical treatment as well as work,” Mr Holder said.

“Wagga is a growing city. The whole are is taking off.”

The retiree said Coolamon could be included by using the existing line to move people to Junee to link up with the main shuttle.

“There’s nothing along the Coolamon line outside of harvest time,” Mr Holder said. “It would only need to be a small rail motor with one or two carriages.”

The septuagenarian said having a shuttle service would help ease the city’s growing traffic congestion problems.

Cr Keenan said the community had an “appetite” for the plan and mayor Greg Conkey said the council would pursue it further.

“...it makes sense to have a reasonable public transport system for commuters travelling between (Wagga and Albury),” Councillor Conkey said