Economics
Articles focussed on transport economics, including rail and tram construction costs, operating costs, CBAs, tipping points etc.
Publicising our research – answering a call for papers
The 2010 Australasian Transport Research Forum has put out a call for papers that closes at the end of January 2010. If you've got a piece of research that you've done on a transport topic, why not share it with the rest of the transport world? »
Back to the future – Mainline electrification in Australia?
Recent issues of UK rail magazines have discussed the merits of extending conventional (medium speed up to 200km/h) rail services along the remaining non-electrified main lines in that country. Some of these have recently been announced, including in Scotland, while other iconic possibilities include the Great Western Railway territory, a famous home of fast... »
Getting it right: the Sydney Metro
I’m glad my recent post on incrementalism received a lot of responses and debate. I’ll move on from that to talk about the recent experience of the Sydney urban rail system under the dying government of Nathan Rees. I’ve blogged a few times on what I see as the paradox of a dying government with... »
What is the right level of government to subsidise urban transport?
Another issue that has intrigued me is the inevitable calls on government to subsidise urban public transport, and which government should that be. Some of our recent posts been instructive in this regard – particularly the way federal-state financial relations impact the amount of funds available to subsidise transport. Background It is my contention that government subsidies... »
Generalised competitive positioning model for USA high speed rail
There have been some recent posts such as Phin's on high speed rail in the USA on the different blogs, »
Are Melburnians Wedded to Their Cars?
I’ve been catching up on some of the posts that I’ve missed, and reading MJJA’s most interesting post on achieving modal shift and the resulting discussion, I was brought back to the question of whether people in Melbourne are – for want of a better term – wedded to their cars. Melburnians supposed psychological... »
Reaching the lofty heights of efficiency: The Belair rail service
Sorry if I'm sounding like a broken record on this, but thought it an interesting topic. Somebody has already posted an excellent post on this topic. »
The extended value proposition: scheduled services versus turn up and go
When I wrote earlier about the value proposition and value adding in public transport the first point that was »
Genuine intercity that we’ve been waiting for
A big theme of my posts on my own blog and in other notorious places has been the role of genuine intercity rail services, such as we’ve seen in other countries. I have always found it bizarre, especially from railfans, the argument that personal motor transport (your own car or motorbike) is somehow desirable as... »
Local area planning and transit-oriented development: a case
I wanted to get away from the Melbourne-focussed nature of this discussion board and look at »