llowing the closure of Cobar’s only remaining taxi service last month, residents have had to find alternative transportation.
LiveBetter’s community transport service, operating limited hours four days a week, has been able to only partially fill that gap.
Patrick and Trish Bourke operated Cobar Taxi Services for nearly six years and after several unsuccessful attempts over the past year to sell the business, appealed for someone to provide a “taxi-like” service to Cobar.
Local Jamie McMurray was concerned there would no longer be a taxi operating in town and decided to set up a transport booking service.
Jamie bought Patrick’s old taxi vehicle and has stripped it down.
“It’s no longer a taxi, it’s a booking service.
“We can still do “taxi” runs around town, but it’s more like an Uber service,” Jamie told The Cobar Weekly.
“We’ll be up and running from Friday doing town runs, and to the mines and airport.
“Some people used to use the taxi service for school runs, so we can do that too when school restarts,” Jamie said.
“There is no meter and fares are similar to what the taxi fares were.
“Running times are to be confirmed but we will most likely run until late,” Jamie said.
