The deal on discount rates
In a post a couple of months ago I looked at how the way we calculate the transport benefits of different projects ends up having a huge difference on its cost-benefit ratio. In particular, it was extremely interesting to note that if we had used the British discount rate and length of assessment when analysing the benefits of the City Rail Link project, it would have around five times the amount of benefit compared to the way such a project is analysed in New Zealand.…
5 Comments Looking at the CBD’s car & bus capacity
Many of the debates over the City Rail Link’s cost-effectiveness have revolved around the question of rail capacity. At what point does the railway network, without the CRL, become overloaded? How many people will be discouraged from taking the train because of this overcrowding?…
Sustainable transport
Yesterday I was invited to speak on Sustainable Transport, as part of the “Friday forum” which is run by the Sustainability Society. My fellow speakers were David Warburton – CEO of Auckland Transport, and Julie-Anne Genter – transport consultant and (on currently polling) likely to be a Green Party MP after the upcoming election.…
Re-analysing the City Rail Link’s benefits
It has been frustrating to see the assessment of the City Rail Link’s benefits become so politicised over the past few months. You would think that something like undertaking a cost-benefit analysis of a transport project would be a fairly objective task, but as we have learned there are so many assumptions made when assessing transport projects – that the objectivity of the process has really become something of a myth.…
Looking closer at “Operation Lifesaver”
Labour’s announcement on the weekend that they would provide $1.2 billion to help construct the City Rail Link was credible because they have a source for the funding: redirecting the money from the Puhoi-Wellsford project which is often termed the “holiday highway”.…
The real benefits of the City Rail Link
My post on Tuesday, which looked at the ongoing debate occurring over the economics of the City Rail Link (and the huge under-counting of benefits under New Zealand’s system, by comparison to the UK’s system), prompted some interesting debate in the comments over what the real benefits of this project are, and who experiences them.…
The disputed economics of the City Rail Link
A few months back when Auckland Council and the government released vastly different results from their (supposedly) joint review of the City Rail Link’s business case, we learned that the process of determining whether a project is “worth it” is not the objective exercise that is so often portrayed.…
NZTA revisiting their assessment of PT projects
One thing that came across most clearly in the excellent Radio NZ piece about the City Rail Link project that played on Sunday morning was that the difference between the government’s measurement of the project’s cost-effectiveness and the assessments undertaken for Auckland Council doesn’t just come down to whether one is right and one is wrong.…
Is public transport cost-effective?
One of the strongest arguments public transport sceptics like Steven Joyce have, when trying to justify the pitiful amount of funding dished out to PT compared to that lavished on new motorways, is that the level of subsidy to PT is growing faster than patronage – particularly over the past 10 years.…
Rail Link Review – digging deeper
The wealth of documents the Ministry of Transport has published on its website in relation to the review of the CBD Rail Link project provide a unique insight into the process that has gone on throughout the review process. If only the development of all business cases (yes, I’m looking at you Puhoi-Wellsford) were able to be so openly analysed.…
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