Transport In Australia Research Articles

Impacts of mode shift on well-to-wheel emissions from inter-capital transport in Australia – Part I: Road and rail transport

Achieving mode shift in the transport sector will help Australia to meet its target for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, although robust data on its effectiveness have previously been limited. This analysis provides valuable new information on mode shift impacts on emissions in Australia and demonstrates some recently developed assessment tools. The analysis considers the potential of a shift from road to rail to reduce well-to-wheel (WTW) emissions (as CO2-equivalents, CO2-e) in 2019, 2030, and 2050, specifically for a case study involving the transport of passengers and freight between Brisbane and Melbourne. The analysis provides emission intensities (EIs) in grams per passenger-km (g/pkm) and grams per tonne-km (g/tkm), as well as annualized emissions, and considers the variability and uncertainty in the estimates using a probabilistic approach. The transfer of passengers and freight from road to rail has the potential to significantly reduce emissions. Electric rail delivers the largest and least uncertain emission reductions. For passenger transport, the EI of electric rail (12 g CO2-e/pkm in 2030; 6.5 g CO2-e/pkm in 2050) is considerably lower than that of road transport (143.2 g CO2-e/pkm in 2030; 58.9 g CO2-e/pkm in 2050), and the uncertainty is lower. For freight transport, the EI of electric rail (8.6 g CO2-e/tkm in 2030; 5.0 CO2-e/tkm in 2050) is also substantially lower than that for road transport (48.3 g CO2-e/tkm in 2030; 29.5 g CO2-e/tkm in 2050). The EI for diesel rail freight (27.0 g CO2-e/tkm in 2030; 26.1 g CO2-e/tkm in 2050) is around half of the value for road transport in 2030, but road transport becomes more competitive by 2050. The complete transfer of passengers between Brisbane and Melbourne from road to electric rail would reduce annual WTW emissions for passenger transport by 75 – 90%, depending on the year. The complete transfer of freight from road to diesel rail would reduce annual emissions by 45% in 2019 and 2030 and by 10% in 2050. The study and tools will help researchers, policymakers, transport/land-use planners, and network operators to quantify, design, and implement mode shift measures to reduce emissions.

Impacts of mode shift on well-to-wheel emissions from inter-capital transport in Australia – Part II: Sea and air transport

Achieving a mode shift in the transport sector will be important in helping Australia to meet its target for net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050. However, robust data for Australian transport have previously been unavailable or limited. This paper extends a recent analysis of mode shift impacts for land surface transport (Part I) to include sea transport (freight only) and air transport (passengers and freight) and demonstrates recently developed assessment tools. The analysis considers the potential of inter-mode shifts to reduce well-to-wheel/wake (WTW) emissions (as CO2-equivalents, CO2-e) in 2019, 2030, and 2050, specifically for the transport of either passengers or freight between Brisbane and Melbourne as a case study. The analysis provides emission intensities in grams per passenger-km (g/pkm) and grams per tonne-km (g/tkm), as well as annualized values, and considers the variability and uncertainty in the estimates using a probabilistic approach. For sea freight transport, the average emission intensities are 9 – 16 g CO2-e/tkm for container ships and 4 – 8 g CO2-e/tkm for bulk carriers, depending on the year. For air passenger transport, excluding non-CO2 climate effects, the emission intensity decreases from 166 g CO2-e/pkm in 2019 – 89 g CO2-e/pkm in 2050. Air transport performs particularly poorly for freight; the emission intensity was 1,345 g CO2-e/tkm in 2019, decreasing to 719 g CO2-e/tkm in 2050. The analysis shows that a transfer of passengers from air or road to electric rail, and a transfer of freight from road to sea or electric rail, have the potential to significantly reduce WTW emissions. For example, for passenger transport between Brisbane and Melbourne, the complete transfer of travel from air to electric rail would reduce annual emissions (including non-CO2 effects) by around 95% in both 2030 and 2050. A complete transfer of freight from road to sea would reduce emissions by around 60 – 80%. In 2050, the complete transfer of freight to electric rail from road, diesel rail, and air transport would reduce WTW emissions between the cities by 83%, 81%, and 99.6%, respectively. The study provides valuable new information on mode shift and GHG emissions across all modes. As such, it helps researchers, policy-makers, transport/land-use planners, and network operators to quantify, design, and implement mode shift measures to reduce emissions.

Personal Public Transport in Australia: Developments and Prospects

The environmental, social, and economic cost of current car dependence is well known. But people tend to be unwilling to forgo the convenience of private transport. Personal Public Transport (PPT) is a new concept combining the environmental advantages of public transport with the flexibility of the car. The key elements of PPT are new multi-hire modes provided by maxitaxis and taxibuses to supplement single-hire taxis and scheduled services; integration of all modes into a single system; and provision of real-time information and booking systems enabling individual passengers to communicate with the transport system, whether they be at home, on street or in transit.This paper describes how PPT will integrate various technologies, such as automatic vehicle location systems, multi-hire dispatching systems, advanced passenger information systems, and smart card billing systems, together with some of the latest developments in Personal Public Transport.While the technical aspects of PPT are expected to be solvable relatively easily, establishing a complete PPT system will require institutional and regulatory change and a willingness to innovate by both transport operators and regulators. The paper describes changes occurring in Australia in the taxi and bus industries and in regulatory arrangements that will facilitate PPT, and sets out models for establishing PPT systems. It also assesses the potential for PPT from a marketing perspective and its relationship to new developments in urban planning. The paper concludes with a prognosis of how urban transport systems will evolve under the influence of environmental pressures, social values and technological developments, and of how our cities will emerge from the mass transit and private transport eras of the past to the new era of Personal Public Transport and Personal Rapid Transit.

Air quality as a game-changer: Pathways towards large-scale vehicle electrification in Australia

This paper presents an integrated analysis of the costs and benefits of carefully constructed scenarios for the electrification of transport in Australia. Scenarios were constructed to responsively meet increased electricity demand, whilst maximising emission reduction, household finances and public health benefits. The scenarios bundle several technologies, including charging infrastructure, electric vehicles, home battery systems, and renewable energy. The fastest, mission-style, adoption scenario can reduce emissions by 9% of the 2030 carbon budget and reduce the loss of life by 24,000 by 2042. In all scenarios, government expenditure is dwarfed by the estimated public benefits, and households are nearly always better off in the medium to long term. Demonstrating the feasibility and advantages of surface transportation electrification in Australia, which presents cross-sections of rural and urban infrastructure, traffic and a large, socially and politically diverse population, provides broadly applicable evidence of the feasibility of electrification in other jurisdictions.

Techno-environmental assessment of small-scale Haber-Bosch and plasma-assisted ammonia supply chains

Haber-Bosch (HB) process, the main method for ammonia (NH3) production, contributes to near 2% of the global carbon emissions because the hydrogen input is obtained from fossil sources. NH3 production is concentrated in a few countries, adding emissions due to global distribution. Distributed plants next to farmers and fed by renewable energy can reduce these impacts, as well as NH3 storage, shortage risks, and price volatility. Distributed plants cannot reach low NH3 production costs as centralised plants, but they can be promoted by the environmental benefits of its products lifecycles. Therefore, life cycle assessments of NH3 production pathways and specific modelling for NH3 transport in Australia were performed, from cradle-to-site, to identify the influence of storage, transport, and energy sources in their environmental profiles. The carbon footprint of centralised production was up to 2.96 kg.CO2-eq/kg.NH3, from which 29.3% corresponded to transport. Local production demonstrated substantial avoided transport impacts and that CO2-eq can reach reductions over 100% when including co-product credits such as oxygen and carbon black. Local plants using electrolysers to supply mini-HB loops obtained rates of 0.12, −0.52, and −1.57 kg.CO2-eq/kg.NH3 using electricity from solar, wind, and biogas (other than manure) sources, respectively. The alternative using high temperature plasma reactor instead of electrolyser obtained its best rate of −0.65 kg.CO2-eq/kg using biogas different from manure. At farm electrolyser-based plants using novel non-thermal plasma reactors, considering potential energy yields and simplified NH3 separation technology, could reach a rate of −1.07 kg.CO2-eq/kg.NH3, using solar energy. Among the assessed pathways, the most notable impact was on freshwater eutrophication in the electrolyser-based plants generating reductions up to 290%, due to oxygen credits. Despite these results, the use of solar energy raises concerns on land use and terrestrial ecotoxicity due to the area needed for solar farms and the manufacture of their components.

Active transport research priorities for Australia

BackgroundTo advance active transport, robust policy-relevant evidence is needed to understand how to change behaviour and to support decision-making by policy makers and practitioners. Currently, however, priority research questions that are most critical for advancing active transport have not been identified. To this end, we aimed to inform an active transport research priority agenda for Australia to guide research, funding, policy making and practice to enhance active transport. MethodsWe designed and conducted a novel priority setting exercise to identify and set research priorities for the advancement of active transport in Australia. The process consisted of three phases: 1) generation and collection of research questions from a diverse reference group consisting of experts and key members representing academia, government, private and not-for-profit organisations (n = 259 respondents); 2) thematic analysis and consolidation of research questions to a final list of 50 questions; and 3) prioritisation of research questions by the reference group (n = 140 respondents). ResultsThe top ranked questions included the evidence to support policy changes to increase active transport, identifying and overcoming community resistance to active transport infrastructure, road space re-allocation and lower urban speed limits, evidence on the needs of children, enhanced governance and funding, and improving how the benefits of active transport are best measured and communicated. ConclusionsTo our knowledge, this is the first priority setting exercise in active transport globally. The identified research priorities can be used to identify new policy-relevant areas of research, contribute to the active transport research agenda in Australia and guide research funding. Focusing on these research priorities will address stakeholder and academic priorities and provide the evidence required to support the advancement of active transport in Australia. Future research could use the same approach to identify research priorities in other countries.

Fighting with “the tyranny of Distance”: History of transport in Australia

Transport plays a vital role in the development of state of Australia. Transport can be compared with arteries of different industries of different types of economy. This infrastructure is especially important for Australia which has a great territory and low density of its population. That’s why the development of transport despite the remoteness of the continent from the Old World went parallel but sometimes even ahead of Europe. For the first time in Ukrainian science, an attempt has been made to investigate at the interdisciplinary level the formation of Australian state with the help of transport. Events are presented in chronological order because the very history of the discovery of the continent began from sailboats. Sailboat transport at the time of the discovery of Australia and the transportation of the first convicts, their supervising soldiers and administration together with free settlers from The Great Britain arrived on sailboats. The use of sailboats in transport along the coast of Australia is also clarified as well as hunting for whales, the future visits to the Pacific Islands and transportation from there valuable species of wood. The transition to steam shipping and later to motor shipping is distinguished, subsequently to motor shipping, innovative port changes of the coast of Australia for better floating and for better placement of cargo on steamers and their uploading taking into account the cost of human labour, of appropriate mechanisms and devices. Features of Australian river navigation are also considered. The development of land transport is studied. It is proved that the development of rail transport in the XIX st. became an important link in the transport system of Australia. Its advantages and obstacles which for many years stood in the way of development are allocated. The problems of different gauge in each Australian state are analysed and the difficulties of overcoming them are emphasized. Road transport and road construction have come out in Australia at a rapid space. It was found that road construction for Australian society was not only economic but also of great social importance because the soldiers who returned to their homeland from the First World War had their jobs on road constructions. The origin and development of aviation on the fifth continent are analysed. The figures of aviation designers are singled out. They pioneered aviation industry in Australia. Conclusions are drawn that this industry became dominant in Australia now.

Consumer preferences for on-demand transport in Australia

Abstract On-demand transport (ODT) refers to adaptive transport services that use a fleet of vehicles to provide shared flexible transport to consumers, when and where they need it. This study surveyed 3,985 geographically and demographically representative Australians nationwide, to understand consumer demand and willingness to pay for ODT in Australia. Our analysis finds that the current market for ODT services in Australia is small. For example, for an ODT service that costs roughly the same as UberX’s ridesharing service, and offers comparable level-of-service, our analysis predicts that only 17 per cent of the Australian population can be expected to use the service a few times a week or more. However, shared electric autonomous vehicles could significantly change the business case for ODT services, by enabling on-demand door-to-door transport services at a fractional cost of similar existing services. Our analysis finds that while consumers are willing to pay, on average, 0.28$/km more to avoid sharing a vehicle with other passengers, 0.17$/km more for door-to-door service, and 0.10$/km to be able to book the service in real time, cost is the most important determinant of ODT use (of the service attributes included in our analysis). For an ODT service that provides the same level-of-service as UberX, but at a fractional cost of $0.30 per km, 31 per cent of the Australian population can be expected to use the service a few times a week or more. And this figure is likely to be larger once we account for more long-term changes in lifestyles that might accompany the introduction of these services. We find that frequency of ODT use is strongly correlated with age and lifecycle stage: young individuals who are employed full-time are likely to use ODT most frequently; older adults who have retired from the workforce and whose children have left home are likely to be infrequent users. Overall, our analysis indicates that ODT services have the ability to both increase public transport use among existing public transport customers, and to draw new customers to public transport services.

Mobility as a service in community transport in Australia: Can it provide a sustainable future?

Acknowledgements This research of this paper has been made possible through an industry partnership grant between the Business School at the University of Sydney, Australia and the Community Transport partners. We are grateful for this support and for the support of their clients, our respondents. We are also grateful for the anonymous comments of reviewers who have enabled us to improve the paper. Funding sources This paper utilised research funded under the University of Sydney Business School’s Industry Partnership scheme whereby five CT providers partnered with the Business School to fund the research. The authors acknowledge the facilities, and the scientific and technical assistance of the Sydney Informatics Hub at the University of Sydney and, in particular, access to the high performance computing facility Artemis.

Greening Transport in Australia’s Suburbs

Greening Transport in Australia’s Suburbs

Complexity on the rails: A systems-based approach to understanding safety management in rail transport

Rail transport is a complex, safety-critical system which experiences catastrophic events. Systems theory-based approaches have been applied to understand risk and safety management in a range of safety-critical domains, however in rail, systems approaches have tended to be applied for accident analysis, rather than to describe how risk and safety is proactively managed. This study involved the development of a control structure model of rail transport in Australia using the Systems Theoretic Accident Model and Processes (STAMP) method. The control structure identifies the actors involved in managing safety, and shows the control and feedback mechanisms that comprise the adaptive feedback function to maintain safety. The control structure was refined in a participative process involving subject matter experts. Insights identified for improving safety management included: a need to improve feedback mechanisms to better understand the effectiveness of control measures; a lack of formal controls at higher levels of the system; and a focus within current feedback mechanisms on failures rather than understanding and learning from normal performance. Opportunities for applying the model in industry practice are also explored.

The Influence of Responsibility Shift on Warehousing Performance: The Case of Australia

Although there have been extensive efforts to eliminate the use of warehousing due to its large requirement of resources, the need to connect manufacturing with end consumers will be difficult to coordinate without it. In Australia, the rapid advance of warehousing has facilitated the challenging demands of customers. In the literature, the challenges of increasing reliability, space utilisation, and reducing waste have been managed through improved warehousing processes and technology; however, the important role of employees through responsibility shift in enhancing warehousing performance has not yet been fully explored. This study therefore examines the relationship between the employment of Responsibility Shift (RS) and Warehousing Performance (WP) in Australia within the processes of Inbounding and Storage through the usage of a survey conducted with department supervisors and managers of warehousing companies which were members of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport in Australia (CILTA) and Supply Chain and Logistics Association of Australia (SCLAA). It was found that RS positively causes a statistically significant influence on warehousing performance. This research contributes to enrich the literature on RS as it is perhaps the first study which examines the effects of RS on warehousing performance in Australia while also enables warehousing managers to explore ways to improve warehousing performance from the human resource management perspective. Although being significant both in terms of managerial and academic implications, the generalizability of this research is limited from a small sample size. Future research, therefore, needs to look into a wider population as well as further investigation into the effects of Responsibility Shift in the rapidly developing warehousing business environment elsewhere in the world.

Overheads of truck transport in Australia: implications for biomass as feedstock for bio-energy

ABSTRACTTransport of feedstock for transformation to usable fuel, and/or utilized, are overheads in the use of biomass for bio-energy. The inclusive costs for truck transport were evaluated for different truck types. Using small trucks, operational costs (1.1 Aus$/t/km) are an overwhelming liability in terms of the value of carbon and/or energy delivered, unless transport distances are a few kilometres. When larger trucks are used, transport costs (0.15 Aus$/t/km) represent a significant impost on the actual value of the commodity (carbon or energy) and the degree to which it is competitive with other sources of energy (e.g. existing electricity, gas or petroleum) or with the likely values placed on carbon. For example, transport costs are equivalent to the retail value of electricity when a large truck has travelled about 600 km. These results are also relevant to how transportation distances influence the economics of value chains for various commodities.

Taxes to influence energy use in road transportation in Australia

The desire to achieve a shift towards renewable energy will be difficult to achieve without a change in the energy use in road transportation in Australia. The transport sector in Australia is heavily reliant on oil and is responsible for contributing 18.1%, of Australia's annual greenhouse gas emissions. This paper examines the current Australian tax policy and its inability to make an impact on transport choices that would reduce energy use and emissions and promote alternative energy use. Some of the current taxes such as the luxury car tax can be singled out as a tax that has passed its “use-by” date. The paper explores how the Australian Government can use targeted taxation measures in order to encourage the purchase of low energy consumption and low-emission vehicles, reduce the number of registered cars on Australian roads and control the use of cars as a means of personal transportation. A comprehensive tax measure suggested in this paper is the luxury energy tax based on the premise that energy use in transportation is a luxury and should be taxed appropriately in order to curb its use and bring about a behaviour change in the choice and usage of motor vehicles.

Factors affecting the competitiveness of the Australian rail sector: a systems approach to improving service quality

The productivity of rail freight transport in Australia is hampered by various impediments. These include infrastructure constraints, commercial barriers, and inconsistent standards and policy, all of which influence the quality attributes of the rail freight service in different ways. Therefore, in order to develop strategies to make rail an attractive mode of transport, it is critical to identify these impediments and assess their relevant influence on the quality of rail service. By adopting a systems approach to competitiveness, this research aims to empirically examine the impact of impediments faced by the rail sector. This approach is beneficial as it: (i) identifies the distinct impact of each impediment on the different freight service attributes (FSA); (ii) provides important insights to improve the rail service quality; and (iii) aims to assist government and industry to develop informed transportation and infrastructure planning decision making by identifying the poorer performing areas of system. The analysis identified the key factors influencing the quality of different FSAs relating to (i) infrastructure management; (ii) interoperability; and (iii) organisational and commercial relationships. The implications derived from this study indicate that the freight rate is still a key area for rail to achieve competitive advantage considering the market characteristics.

Factors affecting the competitiveness of the Australian rail sector: a systems approach to improving service quality

The productivity of rail freight transport in Australia is hampered by various impediments. These include infrastructure constraints, commercial barriers, and inconsistent standards and policy, all of which influence the quality attributes of the rail freight service in different ways. Therefore, in order to develop strategies to make rail an attractive mode of transport, it is critical to identify these impediments and assess their relevant influence on the quality of rail service. By adopting a systems approach to competitiveness, this research aims to empirically examine the impact of impediments faced by the rail sector. This approach is beneficial as it: 1) identifies the distinct impact of each impediment on the different freight service attributes (FSA); 2) provides important insights to improve the rail service quality; 3) aims to assist government and industry to develop informed transportation and infrastructure planning decision making by identifying the poorer performing areas of system. The analysis identified the key factors influencing the quality of different FSAs relating to: 1) infrastructure management; 2) interoperability; 3) organisational and commercial relationships. The implications derived from this study indicate that the freight rate is still a key area for rail to achieve competitive advantage considering the market characteristics.

Survey of horse transportation in Australia: issues and practices.

To survey amateur and professional participants on equine transportation management, practices and outcomes in Australia. An online survey targeting people who organised horse movements at least monthly was made available to a broad cross-section of amateur and professional equine associations. Respondents were invited to provide demographic details and information relating to their routine transportation management practices and their experiences of issues relating to the transportation of horses. Of 797 usable responses involving approximately 17,000 horses and 313,000 individual horse transport events, transport-related behavioural problems were reported by 38% of respondents, particularly at loading. Transport-related health problems had been experienced during or after transportation by horses in the care of 67% of respondents. The most common problems reported were traumatic injuries (45.0%), diarrhoea (20.0%), muscular problems (13.0%), respiratory problems (12.3%), overheating (10.5%) and colic (10.3%). In the 2 years reviewed in the survey, 9.4% of participants reported at least one case of transport-associated pneumonia and 35 horses had died, most commonly from fractures, colic or pneumonia. Although respondents identifying as amateurs transported horses less frequently and over shorter distances, the incidence of transport-related problems was similar between amateurs and professionals. Respondents reported specific precautions before, during and after transportation, although management was often not compliant with the Australian Code of horse transportation. Responses indicated that there remains a substantial risk of adverse welfare and health outcomes for horses transported in Australia and management practices reported may not be compliant with current recommendations for transportation.

Re-Routing Empire? Steam-Age Circulations and the Making of an Anglo Pacific, c.1850–90

The introduction of steam not only enhanced Australia's transport links within the empire. It also altered attitudes towards the feasibility and desirability of transpacific connectivities, and brought new prominence to the Pacific-orientations of Australia's eastern colonies. By envisioning steam-age connections across the Pacific, first to Panama and then to San Francisco, Australia sought to imagine and situate itself in a transpacific sphere. The routes shaped cultural sensibilities and political ideologies across the Pacific, expressed in affinities and allegiances between Australia and North America. This article examines transpacific steam from the mid- to the late nineteenth century, a fractured and indeterminate period which nevertheless laid the ground for Australia's sense of itself as an autonomous white nation, relating across the Pacific and within a wider Anglo world beyond Britain and empire.

Drivers of Australian dust: a case study of frontal winds and dust dynamics in the lower lake Eyre basin

AbstractThe roles of pre‐frontal, frontal and post‐frontal winds as the primary wind systems for dust entrainment and transport in Australia are well established. While the relevance of each system has been observed across different wind erosion events in central Australia, the entrainment of dust by all three winds during the passage of an individual front has not been demonstrated until now. Synoptic information, satellite aerosol and imagery, meteorological and dust concentration data are presented for a single case study erosion event in the lower Lake Eyre Basin. This event demonstrates variable dust transport in three different directions from one of the southern Hemisphere's most significant source regions, and the changing nature of the active dust pathways during the passage of a frontal system. While only a single dust event is considered, the findings show the complexity of mineral aerosol emission and transport patterns even within an individual dust outbreak. For the lower Lake Eyre Basin, this appreciation of pathway behaviour is significant for better understanding the role of aeolian inputs from the dominant Australian source to surrounding marine systems. In a wider context, the findings exhibit the detailed insights into major dust source dynamics that can be obtained from high resolution spatial and particularly temporal data, as used in combination. This work highlights the importance of adequately resolved data for the accurate determination of dust entrainment and transport patterns of major dust sources. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The role of hydrogen in Australia's transport energy mix

In this study we review the trends and trajectories of energy use and emissions in Australia's road transport sector. We find that energy use and emissions in heavy-duty vehicles are growing at a greater rate than light-duty vehicles, and that heavy-duty vehicle energy consumption will surpass that of light-duty vehicles by 2032. We explore whether popular light-duty alternative energy concepts, such as battery electric technology, are also competitive for heavy-duty vehicles. We observe that finding a sustainable energy technology that competes with the high energy density of diesel is a formidable challenge. Alternatives such as natural gas, propane and biofuels have managed to establish a beachhead. However, none have constituted a disruptive threat to diesel oil. The lack of any silver bullet technology indicates that further research into technology options is warranted. Hydrogen fuel cell systems have many characteristics which are attractive for the heavy-duty transport task, including complementarity with electric vehicles and a cross-benefit from developments in batteries and electric drivetrains. We conclude that for Australia, fuel cells may find their niche in the electrification of heavy-duty drivetrains, in markets where zero emissions are desirable, and where range, duty cycle or payload requirements exceed the capabilities of battery--only vehicles.