Blog entry #6

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”.