Blue Mountains Tourism president Jason Cronshaw has described the closure of the Blue Mountains rail line due to a freight train derailment as "another devastating blow" to the tourism industry.
Buses will continue to replace trains between Springwood and Katoomba over the Christmas period following the derailment at Linden on December 14.
Transport for NSW has indicated the repair work isn't likely to be completed until at least December 31 with more than 15,000 sleepers needing to be replaced and 120 broken rails fixed.
Mr Cronshaw said the disruption was "another devastating blow" to the local tourism industry after bushfires, COVID and weather events, "just when the industry was looking forward to a busy Christmas and summer holiday tourism trade".
"Those who rely on the train service are absolutely devastated," he told the Gazette.
He said one Katoomba cafe told him the train derailment had destroyed their Christmas/New Year tourist trade.
Another said: "On the plus side, I won't have to buy stock for months now - it won't sell."
NSW Upper House Liberal MP Shayne Mallard said he will push for a state government promotion of the Blue Mountains when the rail line has reopened.
"Once restored in the new year, we should see tourist numbers continue to grow to pre-pandemic levels," he said. "I'll certainly raise additional promotion for the Blue Mountains with the Minister for Tourism."
Mr Mallard agreed the timing of this disruption could not be worse.
"Just when we are seeing strong green shoots of recovery from bushfires, flooding and years of COVID, the key tourist connection is taken out by an accident. Thankfully no one was injured or endangered by this incident and we thank the agencies and teams working around the clock to restore the rail services," he said.
Mr Cronshaw, who also owns Fantastic Aussie Tours and operates the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus, said he was "at a loss" when he heard the repairs would continue beyond Christmas.
"We had just decided to restart the Explorer Bus daily. We rely on the train service for our customers," he said.
He did consider postponing the daily service but said he didn't want to disappoint visitors who still come to the Blue Mountains.
Bus replacement service
But the local tourism chief praised the quick work to get a bus replacement service in place.
"On the positive side, while there will be some delays, at least we have a regular bus service to replace the trains," he said. "We thank our colleagues at Near or Far Bus & Coach and CDC for providing us some rail replacement work - obviously every little bit helps."
Blue Mountains MP Trish Doyle has been keeping residents informed about progress on the rail line via her social media channels.
"Obviously this is a terrible thing to happen on the eve of the summer school holidays and it will have a massive impact on commuters and tourism businesses," she said. "[It] is just the latest challenge for our community after massive infrastructure losses during fires and floods in recent years."
She thanked the "skilled, hard working railway infrastructure workers who are putting in a massive effort to turn this terrible situation around as soon as possible".
Mr Mallard also thanked commuters for their patience.
"Of course, paramount to the rail services is safety and we thank passengers for their understanding during this serious disruption," he said.
Despite the rail setback, Mr Cronshaw still holds hopes the region will flourish over the festive period because many visitors come by car.
"The very good news for Australia, thus the Blue Mountains too, is that Destination NSW has indicated that the Chinese market is ready to go and may even be back earlier than predicted, with strong indications numbers will start booking next year instead of the planned 2024," he said.
