This Working Paper forms part of a research project investigating into certain issues concerned with measuring the benefits of investment in transport infrastructure. The focus of the project is on possible benefits from increased employment; and benefits often claimed to be significant but understated by benefit-cost analyses, especially; cost savings from business logistic responses to improvements in infrastructure (for example, substitution of transport for inventory); rural regional development benefits; and the indirect benefits that an item of transport infrastructure provides to non-users of that infrastructure.

• Econometric Evidence on the Benefits of Infrastructure Investment: an Australian Perspective
  
  wp_025.pdf
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The Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics (BTCE) is examining a number of issues in measuring the benefits of transport infrastructure investment. The issue examined in this paper is how to estimate the employment effects of road construction activity. Other papers from the same project have examined regional development effects, and certain tools for evaluating benefits.

• Employment Effects of Road Construction
  
  wp_029.pdf
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Using the Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics' Road Infrastructure Assessment Model (RIAM), the Roads 2020 study makes forecasts at a strategic level of expenditure needs for investment and maintenance between 1998 and 2005 and between 2005 and 2020. It also indicates the locations and types of these expenditures. The forecasts cover non-urban roads and bridges which are either part of the National Highway System or are considered to be of national significance by the States and Territories. Expenditures predicted are upgrading road capacity (widening, adding lanes), town bypasses, maintenance, and bridge replacement. Some types of investment have been omitted because of data deficiencies or modelling difficulties. The exclusions are urban roads, flood mitigation projects, major realignment projects and widening roads used by road trains for safety reasons. Investments justified on social or equity grounds are also excluded. Traffic levels were forecast using population projections and origin-destination data. Total forecast expenditure needs for the National Highway System for the coming 22 year period have been estimated at $16.8 billion of which the backlog comprises $2.6 billion.

• Roads 2020
  
  wp_035.pdf
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This research project was designed to explore the potential for economic synergies between the two regions and the role that transport might play in their development. The project was undertaken in conjunction with the Research and Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Communications. This Report presents the results of the work of the Australian project team, focusing on northern Australian aspects.

• Transport Synergies Between Eastern Indonesia and Northern Australia
  
  report_097.pdf
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This Report develops further the findings of earlier work by the Bureau of Transport and Communications Economics and the Research and Development Agency of the Indonesian Ministry of Communications on transport in northern Australia and eastern Indonesia. It explores the adequacy of tourism and transport infrastructure in eastern Indonesia to a greater depth of detail than was possible in the earlier work. The focus of the report is on international tourism, because of its importance to eastern Indonesia following the onset of the financial crisis.

• Adequacy of Tourism Transport Infrastructure in Eastern Indonesia
  
  report_099.pdf
  (24.33 MB)

Historically, railways have provided the means to open up new areas for economic development. When built to link existing centres of economic activity, they have given rise to greatly increased opportunities for trade and travel.

• Brisbane to Melbourne Rail Link: Economic Analysis
  
  wp_045.pdf
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The agriculture-based Atherton Tablelands region of Far North Queensland experienced major change after the deregulation of the tobacco industry, and more recently, the dairy industry. The area was previously stable and relatively prosperous, but coping with continual change, unfamiliar market systems and the move to operating professional farm businesses, had caused some levels of distress. This working paper provides a social and economic overview of the region, an assessment of factors affecting the region and a brief discussion of economic development possibilities which might increase the economic resilience of the region.

• Atherton Tablelands Regional Analysis
  
  wp_043.pdf
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The Warren Centre's Community Values Study identified traffic congestion as the main traffic and transport concern for Warringah region residents (51 per cent of those surveyed, compared with 42 per cent for Sydney). The closer to the city, the greater the congestion, although Forest Way, in the northern part of the peninsula, is also significantly congested. The slowest car speeds are on Spit and Military roads (average of 21 kilometres per hour, five to eight kilometres per hour slower than inner routes through Chatswood and Willoughby). At weekends particularly, the Spit Bridge, which opens regularly for boat traffic, is a major congestion point. Secondly, public transport was the focus of 29 per cent of the Warren Centre's survey respondents in the Warringah region, 17 per cent identifying lack of adequate public transport (compared with 12 per cent for Sydney) and 12 per cent indicating the reliability of public transport as their main concern (compared with 11 per cent for Sydney). With no rail service in the region, Warringah region residents have fewer public transport options available to them than many other parts of Sydney. 'East-west' bus services are more limited than 'north-south' services. Bus services also are not independent of congestion on the road system, although bus priority arrangements secure a travel time advantage for bus passengers relative to car passengers over the same route. Thirdly, the Spit Bridge and Roseville Bridge routes each pass through dense residential inner areas. Conflicts between through and local traffic, which include 'rat-running' through residential streets during peak periods, have adverse consequences for the local transport environment and residential amenity. On the Spit route, where traffic is heaviest, with six traffic lanes to accommodate and less than optimal lane widths, safety is an issue with insufficient space for a Jersey (crash) barrier on the winding Spit Hill. There are also kerbside markings at Spit Junction in the northbound direction, advising pedestrians that large vehicles may 'jump the kerb'.

• Improving Transport on the Warringah Peninsula: Issues And Options
  
  wp_053.pdf
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Regional public transport plays an important role in meeting the needs of Australians living in regional and remote areas for access to essential services and for mobility. This paper provides information on Commonwealth, State and Territory government regulatory arrangements and assistance measures relating to regional public transport in 2001–02.

A companion paper, Regional public transport in Australia: Long-distance services, trends and projections (Working Paper 51), provides information on long-distance regional public transport services in Australia, and includes a snapshot of all such services across Australia in 2000–01 and the level of demand and characteristics of regional passenger travel.

• Regional Public Transport in Australia: Economic Regulation and Assistance Measures
  
  wp_054.pdf
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The questions of why regions grow or fail to grow, and what, if anything, governments can do about it have attracted considerable interest and debate for many years. This report provides a select review of previous government intervention approaches and experiences in pursuit of regional development. The review provides useful insights into the purpose and outcomes of various government-sponsored interventions in Australia, and in a number of other comparable countries.

• Government Interventions in Pursuit of Regional Development: Learning from Experience
  
  wp_055.pdf
  (596.21 KB)