In contrast to most big airports where public transport provides a large proportion of passenger access, 86% of access to Melbourne Airport is by car.
David Crosling/AAP
Good public access for Melbourne Airport and others like it depends on not fixating on one solution, like a single rail line, but instead developing multiple options integrated with the city’s needs.
A woman is helped out of the wrecked car of a train that derailed at the station of Pioltello Limito, on the outskirts of Milan, Italy, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2018.
(AP Photo)
The development of suburban infrastructure depends on political, technical and financial priorities. A train derailment in an Italian suburb has highlighted the need to retrofit infrastructure.
Southern Pacific steam engine No. 1364 in 1891.
Wikimedia Commons
Junfeng Jiao, The University of Texas at Austin; Juan Miró, The University of Texas at Austin, and Nicole McGrath, The University of Texas at Austin
Millions of Americans rely on public transit to get to school, work or stores, but many can’t get the service they need. ‘Uberizing’ transit by offering more options on demand could fill the gaps.
Fire crews douse derailed tanker cars carrying crude oil in downtown Lac-Mégantic, Que., in this July 6, 2013, file photo. A trial is now underway for three former railway employees charged in connection with the fatal train derailment.
(THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson)
Christo Venter, University of Pretoria and Gary Hayes, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
South Africa needs to review its approach to rolling out Bus Rapid Transit systems as the current model is proving to be too expensive and unsustainable.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2013. Subways abound in fine particles often carried by brakes or trains.
Diego Torres Silvestre/Flickr
Fulvio Amato, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) and Teresa Moreno, Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua (IDAEA - CSIC)
Subways seem like the perfect solution to improve air quality in cities. But what about air quality underground?
Rail investments have brought Ballarat, Geelong and other regional centres closer in travel time to Melbourne than many outer suburbs.
Tony & Wayne/flickr
Victoria offers lessons in the benefits of integrating metropolitan and regional planning, using regional rail to shrink distance and ease the pressures of growth on our big capital cities.
The Cross River Rail project offers a solution to a narrowly conceived problem while ignoring the bigger picture of metropolitan planning.
shutterstock
The rail project may well help get more commuters into the CBD, but offers few benefits for the parts of the broader metro area where most population growth is occurring.
Malcolm Turnbull has made clear his apparent enthusiasm for a rail line to Melbourne Airport – with or without state government support.
AAP/Julian Smith
A rail link is a big step towards transforming transport access and land use in ways that will enable a much bigger city to remain liveable. And Melbourne can learn from Sydney about this.
Sydney’s bus services are a mix of public and private-operated routes, which complicates any estimates of potential cost savings.
Dean Lewins/AAP
Estimated cost savings for rail and bus franchising from Infrastructure Australia and PwC will have government treasurers salivating. Problem is, the figures are almost certainly far too high.
The private consortium CLARA is proposing a high speed rail network between Sydney and Melbourne paid for by value capture but it still relies on the benefits outweighing the costs.
China has the most extensive high-speed rail network in the world, which has helped reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Jason Lee/Reuters
High-speed rail is now a well-established technology and Australia needs it, as long as the project ticks all the boxes needed to deliver both private and public benefits.