This Working Paper is the first in a series of Working Papers which disseminates the results of a large research project into the adequacy of Australia's transport infrastructure over the next 20 years. The assessment covers all four modes of transport–road, rail, air and sea–with the primary focus on freight.

• Adequacy of Transport Infrastructure: Intercity Roads
  
  wp_014-1.pdf
  (7.88 MB)

This Working Paper is the sixth in a series of Working Papers which disseminates the results of a large research project into the adequacy of Australia's transport infrastructure over the next 20 years. The assessment covers all four modes of transport–road, rail, air and sea–with the primary focus on freight.

• Adequacy of transport infrastructure Multimodal
  
  wp_014-6.pdf
  (3.78 MB)

This Working Paper is an intermediate output in a research project being conducted by BTCE. The project team examines the adequacy of conventional methods for estimating economic benefits from transport and communications infrastructure investment.

• Evaluating Transport Investments With National Economic Models: Australian Experience With ORANI
  
  wp_013.pdf
  (2.9 MB)

Like some other freight-oriented rail investments, the inland railway has been advocated partly on the grounds that it will stimulate the economies of some rural regions. Examined in this paper are the effects of inland railway on the agricultural and mining industries of northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.

• Economic Effects of a Brisbane–Melbourne Inland Railway
  
  wp_018.pdf
  (7.58 MB)

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
  (3.03 MB)

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
  (4.18 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
  (154.74 KB)

Since the early 1990s, railway operations in Australia and in many overseas countries have been radically reformed. One reform has been widespread outsourcing of railway activities such as infrastructure maintenance, to encourage efficient provision through competitive tendering for services. In some cases, entire rail operations have been contracted out or privatised. The major reform, however, has been to introduce regulations to require access to rail infrastructure by outside ("third-party") train operators. This mandated access also supports rail interoperability objectives facilitating train service coordination by streamlining the logistics chain across infrastructure networks.

Prior to these regulations, there were no access charges because the track use was an internal transaction within the railway company the company maintaining the infrastructure had exclusive use of the tracks for its own trains. In essence, the railway's revenue was generated only from tariffs for transporting goods and passengers. However, with mandatory access, rail infrastructure owners offer an additional service non-track owners' access to the infrastructure.

What are fair, equitable and efficient charges for that access? We know that the level and structure of these charges matter, for they account for, perhaps, one-third of the train operator's total operating costs. This report focuses on the rail infrastructure pricing structures that have developed with mandated access around the world, and the lessons that can be drawn from the subsequent experiences.

Our analysis involves consideration of the benefits and costs of mandatory access; the principles of efficient access charges; Australia's systems of access and pricing; international pricing and access systems and the lessons from the experiences with them. While principles of access charges apply equally to freight and passenger trains, mandated access is generally directed only at freight operations. For that reason, in this report we consider only freight operations.

• Rail Infrastructure Pricing: Principles and Practice
  
  report_109.pdf
  (2.98 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)

The submission commences with a brief general discussion of the economics of road and rail infrastructure and some implications for pricing; examines the relationship between estimates of road infrastructure costs attributable to Australian heavy vehicle operators and charges paid, both at the aggregate level and for particular road corridors; discusses issues in improving the efficiency of both road and rail freight infrastructure pricing, and finally considers the question of charging for freight externalities.

• Submission to the Productivity Commission Road and Rail Freight Infrastructure Pricing Inquiry
  
  cr_001.pdf
  (434.28 KB)