This Information Sheet explores the relationship between income and transport use in Australia by identifying the nature of the relationship between income and different types of transport use and how public transport use (especially rail) varies with income in different locations. The information in this publication will be useful in understanding the equity implications of government investment in transport infrastructure, particularly new urban rail infrastructure and implementation of regional development policy for regional cities located within commuting distance of the capital cities.

Experimental estimates of the economic contribution of all transport activity to the Australian economy.

• BITRE summary–Economic Contribution of Transport in Australia
  
  INFRA3738_BITRE_TRANSPORT_ECONOMIC_ACCOUNT_INFO_SHEET_1019.pdf
  (249.48 KB)

Trainline is a compendium of Australia's railways, providing insights, analysis and an understanding of the railway industry. Australia's railways are evolving via changes within and outside the industry. These changes include logistics, commodity flows, technology, urban patronage and regional passenger services. The publication presents an overview and data on railway transport tasks performed, characteristics of the railways and train operators' rolling stock that runs and aspects of railway performance including safety, environment and reliability.

Trainline is a compendium of Australia's railways providing insights, analysis, and an understanding of the railway industry. Australia's railways are evolving via changes within and outside the industry. These changes include logistics, commodity flows, technology, urban patronage, and regional passenger services. The publication presents an overview and data on railway transport tasks performed, characteristics of the railways and train operators' rolling stock that runs and aspects of railway performance including safety, environment and reliability.

Trainline is a compendium of Australia's railways providing insights, analysis, and an understanding of the railway industry. Australia's railways are evolving via changes within and outside the industry. These changes include logistics, commodity flows, technology, urban patronage and regional passenger services. The publication presents an overview and data on railway transport tasks performed, characteristics of the railways and train operators' rolling stock that runs and aspects of railway performance including safety, environment and reliability.

This Information Sheet covers a wide range of subjects, including volume and length of commuting, traffic congestion and commuting patterns. The following five questions are discussed:

1. Is commuting a big part of urban transport demand?
2. Is it true that a lot of people are spending hours stuck in traffic?
3. What has an Italian physicist got to do with commuting?
4. Why do some people commute longer? and
5. Are our commuting patterns changing?

• Five facts about commuting in Australia
  
  is_077.pdf
  (477.63 KB)

The shipping container has revolutionised freight transport over the last half-century but its success is bringing challenges, not least in landside container movements. Port-induced road traffic congestion impacts on port arteries and communities and undermines port efficiency. Policymakers and planners seek to shift activities from roads to rail. This is a challenge, however, because most of the containers move over short distances, where trains are relatively uncompetitive. Despite that, there are instances where port–hinterland rail services exist. This report analyses the underlying necessary conditions that need to prevail for those rail services to be sustainable.

• Why short-haul intermodal rail services succeed
  
  rr_139.pdf
  (3.51 MB)

Trainline 3 is a collaborative compendium between the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) and BITRE, providing insights, analysis, and an understanding of the Australian freight and passenger railway industry.

Australia's railways are evolving due to factors within and outside the industry, including changes in bulk and non-bulk logistics, commodity flows, technology, urban rail patronage and regional passenger services. The publication presents an overview and data illustrating these changes in terms of rail tasks performed, characteristics of the railway networks, train operators' rolling stock and aspects of railway performance including safety, environment and reliability.

Trainline 2 is a collaborative report between the Australasian Railway Association (ARA) and BITRE. It is a further development of the previous rail freight performance publications series and Trainline 1.

The report provides an overview of freight, urban and non-urban passenger rail. Traffic levels, infrastructure and rolling stock provision and railway performance are considered.

Understanding Australia's Urban Railways provides an overview of the urban passenger and freight railways in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. For passenger rail, the report explores service provision; patronage trends; recent and planned network expansion; and the key challenges facing each system. In addition, the report examines the main characteristics of each city's rail freight network including: the extent of the freight/passenger rail interface; recent and planned network expansion; and the principal freight task on each system.

• Understanding Australia's urban railways
  
  report_131.pdf
  (8.88 MB)