Planning and Operation
Ways in which efficient planning and operation of transport systems can be attained. This section also includes plans for potential future transport projects.
Some inconvenient thoughts
The start of a new year turns our thoughts toward the year ahead, while the end of the first decade of the 21st Century in one year's time gives us further pause for reflection and thought. There's been some points about the rail industry ripe for debate that have been rolling around in my... »
Canberra: What might have been?
I’ve started on my summer reading list and the first title to be knocked over is Designing Australian Cities by Robert Freestone. A broad sweeping title for a book which is narrowly focused on one topic – the City Beautiful movement of the first couple of decades of the C20th. As we enter the second... »
Christmas: Will the turkeys vote for it?
I’ve been busy with other things but am keen to keep this place going with useful contributions to public transport thinking. I’ve been a bit guarded about my line of work but let’s just imagine this post is relevant to it. I caught the end of an exchange in the Herald Sun letters section. The person... »
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... »
Lateness – what is it, and what can be done about it?
This is a discussion post suggested by Steamtostay Some issues that can be discussed What is lateness? What service standards define lateness? Who measures it and how is it measured? How could it be measured differently? How is it discouraged in those systems with explicit contractual obligations? Is it the most important factor in judging the... »
The fantasy of a free market in urban development
Peter Costello wrote a column in today’s Fairfax arguing for smaller government. In the Liberal Party’s search for meaning, it is not surprising that the passe ideas are reemerging. And cynics might wonder whether he’s also sewing up his own legacy and making it known that the highest taxing federal government in Australian history –... »
On the seventh day he rested: Discussion post
Transport reviews and planning are still regarding Sunday as different from Saturday in terms of service standards. The latest offender is the Sydney SW sector bus servicing plan, which has a Saturday service standard till midnight but a Sunday one till 9pm only. Let’s talk lifestyle everyone. What do people do these days? Are they... »
When passenger rail is the economically rational choice: Discussion on congestion
Jesus is quoted in the Bible as saying “to everyone who has, will more be given; but from him who doesn’t have, even that which he has will be taken away from him”. He was not discussing urban rail economics, but might as well have been. I am recently returned from an incursion onto Railpage,... »
Silos are for wheat, not for managing public transport
The only silos a transport operator should have Are for bulk grains like wheat. Paul Mees, in his recent submission to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into Train Services, appended his paper Does Melbourne need another central city rail tunnel? which reminded me, when I read it, of why I went into the business (or hobby) of... »