Australian study compares HSR projects worldwide

[CHamilton]

Improving regional passenger rail services

This report reviews the options available for upgrading existing passenger train services, drawing from local and international case studies to inform the conclusions. These case studies illustrate both the range of upgrades available and their effectiveness in increasing rail patronage and mode share.

Travellers seek a comfortable, accessible and dependable service with low transit and waiting times which means, for the train provider, delivering reliable, frequent and fast services. These features lie at the heart of upgrades. There is no rule-of-thumb ‘best’ upgrade option: the effectiveness, scope and cost of improvements of each of the service attributes varies between projects, locations and also the travel markets and competing mode attributes.

Bureau of Infrastructure,Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE)
Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development


© Commonwealth of Australia 2014

ISSN: 1440-9569
ISBN: 978-1-922205-67-4 MAY 2014/INFRA2112

Travel between regions and cities forges ahead, fuelled by growth in population, leisure time and disposable income, and by the rising interdependence of centres of commerce.This is a world-wide phenomenon.

This report illustrates the opportunities, challenges and impediments to applying service upgrades to improve rail service patronage based around existing infrastructure. Upgrade experiences are exposed through the presentation of a diverse range of case studies of local and overseas service upgrades. Physical circumstances, modal competition, demographics and market-mix interplay to negate or encourage upgrading strategies. Either way, upgrades are not necessarily a long-term panacea.

report_137_Regional_Rail.pdf