Category Archives: Infrastructure

Update: Seven things O’Farrell should do in the first 100 days

Posted on 31 March, 2011 by Alex

A couple of updates on my last post: First, a letter from Sandy Thomas (another member of the Sydney Morning Herald Public Transport Inquiry that reported last year) published in today’s Herald offers another and probably more achievable scenario on how … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Development, Governance, Infrastructure, Local Government, Public Transport, Transport, Western Sydney | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Seven things O’Farrell should do in the first 100 days

Posted on 29 March, 2011 by Alex

There is no doubt that Mr O’Farrell and his party scored an emphatic victory in the NSW election, rewriting the record books in the process. While the main factor in the result was the electorate’s obvious dissatisfaction with the performance of … Continue reading →

Posted in Governance, Growth, Infrastructure, Local Government, Public Transport, Sydney metro area, Transport, Western Sydney | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

What are the real differences between bus and rail?

Posted on 14 February, 2011 by Alex

Recently transport consultant Jarrett Walker posted an interesting article on his Human Transit blog regarding the intrinsic and non-intrinsic differences between rail and bus technology, drawing on an article in the Infrastructurist blog which had asked its readers if streetcars … Continue reading →

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Rail infrastructure – a sorry tale of three continents

Posted on 27 January, 2011 by Alex

Two media articles today paint an interesting picture of the current status of rail transport in Australia – and also provide a disturbing contrast with what is happening in the rest of the world. The first is a Fairfax article … Continue reading →

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You call that an amalgamation? THIS is an amalgamation!

Posted on 27 January, 2011 by Alex

Recently I was involved in a project undertaken by the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government, studying examples of amalgamations and other forms of council consolidation across Australia and New Zealand. The largest amalgamation we looked had around 320,000 … Continue reading →

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Toll-road lessons from the “Clem7 lemon”

Posted on 21 September, 2010 by Alex

Recent news that Brisbane’s Clem Jones* (Clem7) road tunnel which opened only a few months ago is now on the verge of financial collapse has a familiar ring, confirming a pattern of losses in a string of privately-owned toll roads and … Continue reading →

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Sydney, population growth – and the rise of “mega-councils” (part 5 – conclusions)

Posted on 14 September, 2010 by Alex

In the first four posts in this series I looked at the distribution of Sydney’s forecast population growth across local government areas and in particular the projected increase in the number of councils with populations over 200,000, from two in … Continue reading →

Posted in Governance, Growth, Infrastructure, Local Government, Planning, Population, Statistics, Sydney metro area, Western Sydney | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sydney transport inquiry – final report released

Posted on 5 June, 2010 by Alex

Well, it’s out. The final report of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Independent Public Inquiry into Sydney’s public transport, chaired by Mr Ron Christie, was published by the Herald earlier this week. The report follows the release of the Preliminary Report … Continue reading →

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Paul Mees puts the case for better-connected public transport

Posted on 2 May, 2010 by Alex

On today’s ABC National’s Public Interest (Sunday 2 May), Dr Paul Mees, a well-known Melbourne-based transport expert,  makes one of the most eloquent summaries of the case for a better-planned, better-managed and better-connected public transport system that I have ever heard. … Continue reading →

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Transport Public Inquiry final report nears completion

Posted on 2 May, 2010 by Alex

A lot has happened since the SMH Transport Inquiry released its preliminary report in February. Shortly after its release the State Government announced that it was dumping the CBD and West Metros, aspects of which were criticised in the Inquiry … Continue reading →

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