Thomas-Andrew Baxter, who is leading Bundanoon residents in a campaign against the axing of rail services, told an open forum at council's meeting last week that despite the work of the Southern Highlands Rail Users Group (SHRUG), rail services to villages south of Moss Vale would be decimated from September this year.

Mr Baxter said that a standing-room only meeting in Bundanoon recently and an earlier meeting in Wingello had shown that buses would not be acceptable substitutes for trains for a range of reasons.

"In Bundanoon and Exeter alone, 360 households have already registered to be part of a community action," he said.

The Bundanoon meeting passed a motion requesting the Shire Council to recognise the plight of the villages and to support a campaign for a review of the proposed services to them by Countrylink and CityRail.

"We request, we need, your political backing," Mr Baxter said.

"The services to the towns have been reprieved, but another part of your constituencies are really going to hurt when these changes take place and we are requesting they do not become the forgotten people.

"The cry is not enough people use the rail services: the answer is there would be a considerable increase in usage if it was reliable, clean and comfortable and did not involved two changes to go to and from Sydney.

"We have a third-world service in a major world city, which is ridiculous."

SHRUG president Dell Dempster, also addressing council, said SHRUG had been working for more than 18 months to achieve the best result from the resources available.

"We have 12 carriages travelling the Southern Highlands track in pairs of two and limited track access because we share the track with freight and other passenger services," she said.