This paper examines the financial performance of the government business enterprises (GBEs) in the Transport and Communications portfolio: Qantas, Australian Airlines, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the Federal Airports Corporation (FAC), ANL Limited (previously the Australian Shipping Commission), the Australian National Railways Commission (AN), Telecom, Australia Post, OTC (OTC Limited, previously the Overseas Telecommunications Commission) and AUSSAT Pty Limited.

• Financial Performance of Government Business Enterprises in the Transport and Communications Portfolio 1977–78 to 1988–89
  
  ip_035.pdf
  (7.7 MB)

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
  (1010.76 KB)

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)

Benefit-cost analysis (BCA) is a valuable and widely used tool. To reduce the odds of misuse, this report probes some important methodological issues, especially as they relate to transport projects. The discussion is relatively non-technical and draws on case studies. The issues examined include claims that transport projects fail to measure certain benefits: employment creation, regional development, logistic adaptations and 'positive externalities'. Also examined are the choice of discount rate, the treatment of taxes, the valuation of travel time, multi-criteria analysis as an alternative to BCA, and the role of national economic models.

• Facts and Furphies in Benefit-Cost Analysis: Transport
  
  report_100.pdf
  (1.33 MB)

This is the third publication contributing to the regional theme of natural disaster research identified in the BTRE's research program. The research examines the benefits of flood mitigation activities through case studies. It captures much of the available Australian information on the costs, benefits and performance of flood mitigation works and measures.

• Benefits of flood mitigation in Australia
  
  report_106.pdf
  (1.02 MB)

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
  (2.33 MB)

For cost-benefit analyses (CBA) of public-sector projects, a common misconception is that the discount rate should include a risk premium in consonance with the private-sector practice of doing so. In examining the issue, this report addresses different types of risk separately including downside risk, which arises from optimistic bias in forecasts and pure risk, which is the variation remaining around the mean after removing downside biases.

• Risk in Cost-Benefit Analysis
  
  report_110.pdf
  (1.27 MB)

In the last decade, Australia's railways have undergone an ownership, operational and technological revolution. The establishment of national public and private train operators has finally brought seamless rail freight services across the country. There has been a complementary development in track management, with one manager (Australian Rail Track Corporation) rather than five, now controlling most of the interstate track.

The standardisation of the Melbourne-Adelaide railway in 1995 removed the break-of-gauge on the East-West Corridor. This has facilitated the subsequent more than doubling of rail freight task between those cities.

Infrastructure investments and complementary funding of new generation locomotives have enabled train operators to harness train economics of heavier, longer trains, for instance, with Melbourne-Adelaide trains now 50 per cent longer than a decade ago.

These changes are transforming the industry. However, the perception is that the legacy of the separate State-based networks may still draw a long shadow over the performance of the network. This report investigates the extent to which physical, operational and regulatory breaks-of-gauge impede the industry. The report provides guidance to policy makers and industry on those issues.

• Optimising Harmonisation in the Australian Railway Industry
  
  report_114.pdf
  (7.89 MB)