Tips and tricks for calculating rail rules-of-thumb

Without first-hand data or technical specs it can sometimes be difficult guessing what things cost, how long they take and so on.

Phin’s series comparing rail construction, tram construction and electrification costs goes a long way to helping rail enthusiasts understand the true cost of proposals.

I’ve come up with some other suggestions that may help those who wish to make serious proposals:

1. Learn to read the State Budget Papers.

In Victoria we have Budget Papers 1, 2 and 3 (although the format is changing and a four has been published in recent years). One is usually the Treasurer’s speech and contains little of interest to the rail theorist except perhaps how they are spinning it. Three often contains “outputs” and while this might sound a bit dull, this is where the key information on deficit funding for urban transport is contained. Budget Paper 2 usually contains program policy changes (such as introduction of new fare rules that will affect costs) and also capital expenditure might be contained in it.

Learn to read such things as the “outyears” (how much a proposal will cost over four or five years) and whether there is any “escalation” of costs and how contractors are actually being paid. There is usually a final progress payment after the project is complete. This is why Treasuries might hold off on funding new projects until well after an existing one is complete.

Find out if the project has a planning component (which could include design work) which is being paid for upfront. Some of the project planning may be absorbed in the head-office budget of the agency but a lot won’t be, especially if it is being given to an outside organisation eg SKM.

When looking at deficit funding, have a look at what they say they are paying for. Do they mix a “Community Service Obligation” payment with other things, or are they separate?

2. Finding timings from old timetables

It might seem somewhat academic how long it takes a train to get to Ringwood express from the city, or Lilydale, or Frankston, or Cranbourne. Old timetables can tell you how long express runs used to take, on routes that no longer run express. I find Mark Bau’s site good for finding the old times in Victoria.

If an old dogbox or Tait grinding up the Mitcham bank at some slow speed was able to complete the journey from Ringwood to Flinders Street in 29 minutes, it begs the questions why a modern train today doesn’t seem to be able to.

3. Become familiar with Google maps.

Google maps lets you do so much, from getting a street-level view of something, to getting distances and travel times by road between places, to viewing the topography of the area, the settlement patterns and so on.

For example, I have marked on the map linked here, the places where a railway from Frankston to Mornington would have come a cropper. A is of course Oliver’s Hill, but there is a second escarpment at B and even C (Moorooduc Highway) is far too steep for trains. Bloom St at the top right hand corner shows where the actual railway line is, and how far round it had to go to gain ground. Online terrain mapping is great fun!

Using online drive times is good for comparing road and rail. Of course, everyone has their heroic stories of how they can drive from A to B faster than anyone else can, but for routes I don’t drive very often, I find the online guides such as google or whereis.com very helpful.

Tags: tips and tricks

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.