He and his wife, Claire have travelled on The Ghan and The Indian Pacific but it is the XPT from Taree that is their transport of choice around two or three times a year.

Ted says "taxi drivers are the eyes and ears of the community" and in recent years he has listened to increasing numbers of passengers speak of unpleasant travel experiences, tales of breakdowns, maintenance issues and recently, rumours that coaches will replace trains.

It is the talk of train to coach services that alarms him the most.

"The talk is about stopping the trains and bringing in more coach services," Ted says.

"I'm just terrified that we are going to lose our trains. Country people deserve a passenger service, we don't need buses.

"I feel very strongly about it. People really like their trains and I think it's important that people really start to make a noise and say to these politicians, 'For heavens sake, we want our train service!' We don't want a coach service."

Ted and Claire always travel in Car A, pack sandwiches and "love that you can get up and have a walk and grab a coffee, and you can't do that on a coach!"

"We recently travelled from Taree to Sydney on the train and instead of having to stay overnight, we thought we would be smart and catch the Murray's coach to Canberra.

"We were squashed into this coach for four hours and it was not real pleasant," Ted recalls.

He doesn't want this to be the future of public transport for people on the Mid North Coast.

"I know it all comes down to money. We should get Steve Bromhead (member for Myall Lakes) on a train to just see how they look and work. Things break down all the time and the trains are starting to look grubby," he says.

"I am really concerned. We really need to make this an issue with politicians ... to keep our passenger train service, Stephen Bromhead here and a bit further up the line, Leslie Williams (member for Port Macquarie).We can't lose our train."