Thank you to blog commentators and followers for making this
piece of cyberspace less lonely J.
Also, thank you to the Department of Transport and Main
Roads for undertaking road rehabilitation works on Elliott Heads Road between
McCarthy Street and Ashfield Road
(May’s Moan).
In the 22 months since my last post I was lucky enough to
take my family overseas to Germany. The 2012
Annual Summit of the International Transport Forum in Leipzig was themed “Seamless
Transport: Making Connections”.
Highlights of the Summit are conveniently available as a free download.
It was particularly interesting how Summit organisers approached
conference transport. Delegates registered
at special conference desks within their hotel lobby, then
simply showed their name tag to receive free public transport to and from the various
venues for the duration of the three day event.
Geraldine from Raddison Blu’s desk even organised helmets and a children’s
trailer so that my family could join me on the Leipzig Mayor’s bicycle tour.
After three Ministerial sessions, four panel discussions and
three site visits, the following themes emerged:
· Shared ownership: people want to be able to use
but not necessarily own cars and bicycles – for example, the Autolib car
sharing system in Paris.
· Good access to information will support good
utilisation of facilities - for example, iPad applications show: available cars
and parking spaces in the Autolib car sharing system, and; bus arrival times.
· Clear language and communication increases
opportunities – for example, english is the business language in Georgia; Deutsche Bahn considers themselves a ‘mobility
and logistics’ business rather than a train company.
· Consider the scale of competition, for example,
if smaller populations find ways to collaborate they attract the same level of
attention of a larger population.
· Public-private partnerships can achieve
ambitious projects.
· Address security and safety to strengthen
co-operation – it may work to think in terms of goods and freight ‘corridors’.
· Different funding mechanisms open up
opportunities eg. USA national infrastructure bank;
·
Extend vision to equal or greater than 20 years
and shared goals will support collaboration - eg. national freight/port
strategies in Australia.
·
Don’t isolate any areas eg. China’s focus on
connecting the remote has resulted in bus services available to 98% of rural
areas.
·
The competitive advantage of each transport mode
needs to be understood and supported.
·
Integrated systems (for example - common
invoicing, containers and ticketing) will smooth the transition between transport
modes.
·
Alternative modes provide system resilience –
for example: during natural disasters; legislative changes such as CO2
emissions reduction, and; fuel price
increases.
·
Commercially, predictability is more important
than speed.
·
Infrastructure maintenance will ensure good utilisation
of existing investments.
·
Invest in low cost, very high benefit projects.
·
Fragment vs bundling – efficiencies can be
gained in freight movement by separating or combining freight packages.
· ‘Hubs’
facilitate connectivity by separating items that may take longer to process –
for example: some customs activities have been separated into hinterland dry
ports to relieve pressure on coastal Ports; there is a ‘hospital’ for unaddressed packages
to relieve pressure on DHL’s main conveyor system; the recently added rail station near Tokyo has
improved efficiency at Tokyo station.
Future Trends
Alternative infrastructure financing arrangements are being
explored: tax revenue, investment banks and partnerships provide longer-term
support, but toll financing or ‘user pays’ systems shorten the time to
construction. Consider the scale of
competition, for example, if smaller NSW local governments collaborate they could
attract the same attention as Brisbane or the Gold Coast.
The USA aims to provide 80% of citizens with high speed rail
within 20 years.
There is a focus on environmental targets with Sweden
reducing reliance on fossil fuels in their government fleet and Portugal asking
their transport system to respect their Natural Resources, while The
Netherlands airport operations have improved air and water quality and France’s
next priority is the electrification of buses.
While safety is Japan Railway Company’s most important
priority, standardisation provides flexibility.
Customers may change ticket reservations at any time or use the same
wheelchair from the railway through the airport terminal and onto the
plane. Standardisation also creates
efficiencies since the number of rail cars can be changed at any time. Similarly, in Germany the same freight
container can be used in different transport modes.
Japan and The Netherlands have used major ‘hubs’ supported
by local infrastructure to make major corridors accessible – for example,
regional train stations are connected with cycleways, trams and buses; major
stations, harbours and airports are accessible from major expressway interchanges.
Sweden focuses on harmonisation, using a “be colleagues with
competitors” mentality to create system resilience such as when trains are down
in the cold Swedish winter. Similarly,
USA’s ‘mega-regions’ and Australia’s modal strategies (eg. for freight and
ports) enhance relationships by shaping an identity, creating a vision and
goals, and standardising data.
Authorities such as the International Association of Public
Transport in Belgium explain setting up a transport authority can reduce
barriers. Benefit-cost arguments focus
on reduced travel times, air quality, healthy societies and not isolating any
areas. Explaining these benefits in
simple terms to enhance communication – the OECD summarises the task as “go
structural, go social and go green”.
