I went to Millthorpe recently and offer two thoughts:
1. It’s a very small town. Out of (say) 1,000 residents, how many would want to go somewhere serviced by the train on any given day?
2. From my observation, it looked like the track had actually been moved away from the platform, so questionable whether you could actually board at the newly-refurbished (for other purposes unrelated to accepting rail passengers) station.
Millthorpe may be a small town, thing have you been there? I have travelled through there on off since the 60's, and there has been a degree of growth of the towns size, but likely not enough to justify a huge PT service to the town. Those without cars, likely have a bus service to Blayney or Oge so easy to say that's al they need.
Taking that aside on my last trip through there around 4 years back on a weekend, I was very surprised at the number of people in the town, cars parked in the main through streets along with side ones. Much of the old historic side of the town especially the buildings have been done up and look magnificent, while others show signs of neglect.
Millthorpe has a mining history and attracts tourists, some may find a day trip to the town interesting or even stay a night, as such going out on the XPT spending whatever time and return in a day a fair option or stay the night and return the next day.
The main line was slewed away from the station as it used to have crossing loops there, memory is that the line was single from Blayney to Springhill, the crossing loop was no longer needed and main line straightened out from the platform. It is not a huge deal to move the line across to the platform again, as enough room is on the Down end to move it across without any loss of speed for trains the same at the up end.
The platform itself and station is in excellent condition and part of a historical society rooms. My only complaint about it is that for some reason the terrible paint scheme that the old brick station has been painted in really takes away from its character. My me, I really hope that any extension to the platform for the stops is done in a manner that compliments the old formwork of the facing and copping, instead of a suspended concrete slab.
One of the things that CL or whatever they want to call the trains these days are very poor at these days is advertising country tours. The areas and history in towns along many lines in NSW could well be put in tours, spending a night or two in places like Bathurst, then to Blayney, Carcoar, across to Millthorpe and on the OGE. Using the XPT where possible and local buses and guides off train.
Those types of tours used to be quite popular, not just with Australians but some overseas people as well as many love to see outside of cities.