Public transport travel in Australia’s capital cities gets a massive, growing financial subsidy (see exhibit). Passengers don’t pay for any of the capital costs and on average only pay for around a third of operating costs. Yet in spite of the subsidy, public transport only accounts for around 10% of all motorised trips. The single [...]
Many Sydneysiders have taken enthusiastically to architect David Vago’s idea, inspired by Manhattan’s High Line, of turning the Sydney Monorail track into an elevated walking and cycling path. When the Sydney Morning Herald posed the question in its on-line survey, “should the Monorail be replaced with a High Line similar to New York’s?”, 81% of the [...]
It seems Australian governments don’t want to tax and they don’t want to spend. Given the enormous changes happening in our cities, that’s an untenable strategy. As I noted recently, the revenue foregone by the abolition of indexation of the fuel excise is now estimated to be $5 billion per annum but the government isn’t [...]
One of the key challenges to improving public transport in Australian cities is that almost everyone wants something glamorous and expensive, like a shiny new train or at least a light rail service. As Dr Mathew Burke points out, although the obvious low cost solution in many outer suburbs is to coordinate new feeder bus [...]
By Alan Davies
|
Tagged bus, feasibility, Huntingdale, Melbourne Metro, Monash University, rail, Regional Rail Link, Rowville, SKM, train, travel demand modelling
|
February 15, 2012 – 9:00 am
There‘re few issues more likely to get the juices flowing than debates about the cost of transport projects. How is it, public transport advocates ask, subways can be built in Spain for $40 million per km, but in Australia and the US its hundreds of millions of dollars per km? Or why have new rail [...]
February 1, 2012 – 10:09 pm
Many people are surprised by the relatively small share of urban passenger travel made on public transport in Australia. Notwithstanding a slight narrowing of the gap in recent years, cars still dominate travel in capital cities, accounting for 85% of all motorised travel in Sydney, 89% in Melbourne and 90% in Brisbane. Their share in [...]
By Alan Davies
|
Tagged grid, interchange, Melbourne, network effect, Public transport, Smartbus, Sydney, synergy, Toronto, transfer, transit
|
December 21, 2011 – 6:59 pm
There are many ways to measure the immense improvement in standard of living enjoyed by western countries over the millennia (although most especially over the last two hundred years). I think an important indicator – with implications for city managers – is the greater demand for physical privacy that comes with rising incomes. Much attention [...]
December 10, 2011 – 11:53 am
The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) is keen to make the case that it costs more to travel by public transport in Melbourne than it does by car. The PTUA says above-inflation fare rises over the last decade mean public transport now costs much more than “petrol in the car” for many trips. The PTUA [...]
December 8, 2011 – 7:22 pm
There’s never any shortage of creativity when politicians, business and the media want to put a particular ‘spin’ – meaning an interpretation that furthers their own agenda, sometimes irrespective of logic, truth or salience – on an issue. I saw a couple of interesting ‘spins’ this week when the Victorian Government announced the public transport [...]
December 7, 2011 – 7:27 pm
Many people are outraged that the Government has dared to increase public transport fares in real terms. From 1 January, fares in Melbourne will rise by around 9%, well in excess of the rate of inflation (3.6% for the 12 months to the September Quarter). From what I can make out, I don’t think anyone [...]
