The council will seek funding for the study from both state and federal governments.

The decision at Monday’s council meeting has been welcomed by Border Rail Action Group, a regional-rail advocacy group made up of Riverina and Murray region residents.

Dennis Toohey, executive member of BRAG, said the news was progress towards a system that “aligns with our vision for residents”.

“That is, to take a region-wide approach to commuting,” he said.

Mr Toohey oversees developments in transport connectivity and in August presented at a ‘Future Transport Forum’ about connectivity, focusing on Albury-Wodonga.

In recent times, the group has discussed with NSW TrainLink about services for the Riverina.

“Meetings have been held with economic-development officers from Griffith and Narrandera councils, seeking their ideas on improving public transport connectivity between Griffith, Wagga and Albury-Wodonga,” Mr Toohey said.

“Earlier this year, we met with councillor Vanessa Keenan and Albury’s deputy mayor Amanda Cohn about the topic of regional connectivity.”

Ian Gray, CSU’s associate professor in regional transport, said a regional rail service would need to accommodate all demographics, including students, workers and pensioners.

“The main issue would be timetabling, particularly for those who want to do day trips,” Mr Gray said.

“There’s also the decision about whether the service would stop at all intermediary stations, but I expect the study would address those issues.

“It could very well be a valuable service, particularly for smaller council areas like Junee.”

As part of the council’s decision, a working group will be established through Riverina Regional Cities to lobby for funding.

Councillor Vanessa Keenan, a leading advocate for the service, said the study was a way to show demand for the service.

“It’s to investigate models that could work, but the critical thing is to identify and measure economic benefits for the region,” Cr Keenan said.

She said the study is an extension of her 2017 discussion paper that calls for an investigation into establishing the service.

Her effort was acknowledged by Wagga mayor Greg Conkey, who moved the motion to develop the study.

“I was in Bathurst not that long ago when the premier announced the fact that a part of the vision for the State Government was inter-connectivity between regional centres,” Cr Conkey said.

“Which means Wagga, Albury and Griffith – so this fits in with that vision statement.”

The feasibility study is also based on the State Government’s 20-Year Economic Vision for Regional NSW, released in July, which identified the need for improving public transport between regional and metropolitan centres.

In July this year, the trial of a bus service between Wagga and Wodonga began, which failed to attract strong demand in its first week.

Cr Conkey said a rail service would be more popular due to its speed.

“A lot of people from Albury who come to Wagga for business and vice versa, so hopefully, this [rail service] would cater that,” he said.

He said that while there were concerns that Wagga residents would go to Albury to shop, he believed it was “a two-way street”.

“We believe a number of Albury-Wodonga people would come to Wagga,” he said.

Cr Conkey said the service would also address other areas, such as the university and health sectors.

“We cater for about 380,000 from Central and Southern NSW who come to Wagga to access our health facilities,” he said.

“We’ve got 116 specialists in this city and that attracts people coming in to see those specialists.”

Discussion paper by Cr Vanessa Keenan