Both major parties are promising major road projects this election. Meanwhile, the potential for passenger and freight rail to help meet the country’s climate goals seems stuck at the station.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Light rail
Displaying 1 - 20 of 21 articles
The National Party’s transport policy risks locking the country into a car-dependent, high-carbon future.
Bus rapid transit is more than a way to get thousands of people to the game. Used in cities globally as an alternative to light rail, it can be a cost-effective way to transform cities for the better.
In a housing crisis, publicly owned land should never be sold to private developers and should instead be used to build the kind of housing the market is unwilling and unable to build.
Transit agencies could use the money to buy new subway cars, buses and maintain rails. The funding is designed to build on last year’s emergency aid, which kept transit operating through the pandemic.
In many cities contemplating new light rail systems, bus rapid transit offers a cheaper, faster and more flexible solution.
Installing light rail is costly, as Sydney has found, but it’s the gold standard for public transport along road corridors. What trackless trams can do is rapidly expand such services at low cost.
The autonomous rail rapid transit (ART) system developed in China might make buses sexy, but the technology alone won’t resolve the issues of road space and right of way in Australia.
For 40 years the author has argued that trains and trams are better than buses. New ‘trackless trams’, which take innovations from high speed rail and put them in a bus, have changed his mind.
In the 1970s, both Kyoto and Melbourne made fateful decisions about their transport networks. Melbourne today enjoys the benefits of trams, while Kyoto lives with the consequences of losing them.
The light rail project pushed up property values within 800 metres of the stations by over 30% from 1996 to 2016. Gains on this scale offer a potential source of finance for public transport.
Transport infrastructure projects are conceived, planned and assessed in a way that makes it difficult to properly consider their major public health impacts.
Land value gains following the opening of stage one of the Gold Coast light rail project were worth around 25% of its cost.
Cities are home to many different people who will not always agree. We need to learn to embrace public debate as an ongoing, constructive process for working through diverse views and values.
Much of the infrastructure Australia needs will be funded by “value capture” – raising tax revenue by boosting land values. Some have decried it as a tax hike in all but name, but it isn’t really.
If planning decisions properly considered the value of trees in a city, we could have a modern transport system and tree-lined views to enhance the journey.
The Turnbull government seems to have lifted Abbott’s moratorium on rail funding, but giving light rail to every city that wants it will take some clever strategies to woo private investors.
Light rail is good for cities, but it’s also expensive, which is why many Australian cities have opted for buses instead. But there is a way to get top-drawer public transport using private dollars.
Regulators, rebates and retaining bus services - Plaid’s transport policy offers a lot, but little explanation on how to fund it.
Mesa, Arizona: a place with wide streets and narrow minds. Or so goes a once popular saying about this traditionally laid-back, conservative community that came into official existence in 1883 as a Mormon…
Top contributors
-
Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University
-
Head of Urbanism and Associate Professor of Urban Studies, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney
-
Professor of Human Geography and Planning, University of Tasmania
-
Senior Lecturer, Nottingham Business School
-
Senior Research Fellow in Urbanism, University of Sydney
-
Associate Professor of Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne
-
Senior Research Fellow, Acting Director, CHETRE, UNSW Sydney
-
Research Fellow, Curtin University
-
Research Affiliate, University of Technology Sydney
-
Professor of Public Transport, Director Public Transport Research Group, Monash University
-
Lecturer in European spatial planning, University of Liverpool
-
Former Research Officer, Bangor University
-
Associate professor, urban planning, Sorbonne Université
-
Senior Research Fellow Morrison Institute For Public Policy, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Arizona State University
-
Research Fellow - Henry Halloran Trust, University of Sydney
