Gareth Parker Agrees - But You Read It Here First

Yesterday, we posted a piece an item about the Infrastructure Australia Summary report on the Perth Freight Link (http://sustainabletransportcoalitionofwa.blogspot.com.au/2015/08/transparency-and-perth-freight-link.html).

Today, Gareth Parker, in the West Australian, presents a very similar take on the IA assessment. His concluding words should be required reading for all involved in this project:
"The Infrastructure Australia assessment gives him [Transport Minister Dean Nalder] cover [on his claims that PFL is a 'fantastic project']. But what he cannot claim is that the PFL is the best solution. That's what taxpayers are entitled to demand"

West Australian, 20th August 2015

Posted by Ian Ker, Convenor, STCWA

Transparency and the Perth Freight Link

We have previously commented on this blog about the need for greater transparency and objectivity in government decision-making. The recently (and reluctantly) released Infrastructure Australia report on the Perth Freight Link is a case in point.

This report does provide some greater clarity, but Infrastructure Australia itself has not been able to get sufficient information to satisfy itself that the PFL is the best option for dealing with the land transport needs of WA's international container trade.

Indeed, IA 'damns with faint praise' when it concludes: "After accounting for these [risk and uncertainty] factors, Infrastructure Australia still has a high degree of confidence that the BCR is greater than 1.0:1 for the project".

According to IA, "Major risks for the project include costs, environmental approvals and community support", which doesn't leave much in the way of certainty.

IA does not state that the project is warranted because it did not have comparable information on alternatives and therefore could not assess whether other options would provide better value to the WA community.

"A rapid BCR was completed for the preferred option only, assessed against the Base Case. A rapid BCR was not completed for additional options to determine if the preferred option provided the greatest net benefits."

Infrastructure Australia says the Business Case lies (or at best misleads) about alignment with State Strategic Priorities:

"The Business Case outlines strong links between the Perth Freight Link Project and State priorities, policies and initiatives listed below. At the time of assessment (May 2015), the Perth Freight Link project is not directly mentioned in any of these State plans and policies:
• State Planning Strategy 2050 and Metropolitan Region Scheme;
• Directions 2031 and Beyond;
• Murdoch Specialised Activity Centre Structure;
• Draft Moving People Network Plan;
• WA Regional Freight Transport Network Plan;
• Draft Perth Freight Transport Network Plan;
• Draft State Port Strategic Plan; and
• Fremantle Port Inner Harbour Port Development Plan."

This appears to be yet another reason why 'Moving People' and 'Moving Freight' have abandoned by the Government and are now being rewritten to comply with the political narrative (http://sustainabletransportcoalitionofwa.blogspot.com.au/2015/06/wonderfully-horrifying-and-depressing.html).

IA also states that proposed project was selected from 12 possible ones on the basis of subjective criteria, with only the 'preferred' project being subject to full benefit-cost analysis. None of the 12 options included consideration of the Outer Harbour.

"The preferred option was selected from 12 shortlisted options. All 12 shortlisted options were assessed against selection criteria and assigned an achievability rating. Based on this qualitative assessment, the preferred option was selected from a list of 4 high rated options."

The options considered included pricing and efficiency using existing road infrastructure, investment or subsidisation of rail and a number of road investment options. The options did not include consideration of the Outer Harbour at Cockburn Sound South of Perth."

Transport Minister, Dean Nalder, says that Roe 8 is required even for Outer Harbour (see ABC report, below), but this does not consider other alternatives, including properly configured rail and peripheral road infrastructure.

The Infrastructure Australia Assessment Summary can be found at http://infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/projects/files/WA-Perth-Freight-Link.pdf.

Written and Posted by Ian Ker, Convenor, STCWA

Call for Perth Freight Link Project to be Suspended

More pressure on this ill-thought-out project.

Click to enlarge

Posted by Ian Ker, Convenor, STCWA

Senate Agrees On Need For Transparency

We have written previously in this blog about the need for transparency in decision-making (http://sustainabletransportcoalitionofwa.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/transparency-and-objectivity-needed-in.html).

It seems the Senate agrees and has called for documents relating to the Perth Freight Link to be made public. The Senate has given the Federal Government until 5pm (AEST) on Tuesday to release traffic modelling and cost benefits information for the project, as well as any Barnett Government business cases submitted. It also wants the Infrastructure Australia Board evaluation of the project to be made public.

As we have previously noted (http://sustainabletransportcoalitionofwa.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/httpsau.html), this has all the hallmarks of the East-West Link in Melbourne, for which the then-Victorian Government refused to release documents - and when documents were released after a change of Government they showed that there was no commercial or socio-economic justification for the project.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-10/senate-demands-freight-link-documents/6686936

Written and Posted by Ian Ker, Convenor, STCWA

More On International Comparisons

http://www.londontoolkit.com/blog/eats/coffee-shop-chains-in-london

International comparisons are always fraught with difficulty. My favourites are those that try to compare the price of something in various countries - which rely on exchange rates that have nothing to do with relative purchasing power.

We often hear whingeing about the price of coffee in Perth by comparison with other places in Australia and overseas. Exchange rates don't affect the within-Australia comparisons, but they do affect international ones.

For example, a AU$4.50 cup of coffee seemed expensive (equivalent to £2.50) compared to the UK a year ago - but, now the value of the Australian dollar has dropped, that same cup of coffee is equivalent to £2.00 - similar to the price in a typical UK high-street coffee shop.

And so it is with public transport. As Alex Delbosc clearly shows, we should be wary of comparing the public transport we use every day at home with those we use as visitors overseas, because we use them for different purposes and our expectations as visitors are different from those we have as commuters.

We could wish, however, that we in Perth had a clear vision for public transport rather than continuing to argue about who said what and what they really meant - and that's just within the Government.

http://theconversation.com/public-transport-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side-44307

Written and Posted by Ian Ker, Convenor, STCWA