| Balance Research | Overview |
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Resources include community assets like clean air, quiet enjoyment and freedom from danger and urban blight.
| THIS INDEX LEADS TO ON-LINE DETAILS OF SUBMISSIONS, TALKS AND PAPERS PREPARED BY BALANCE RESEARCH OVER MANY YEARS. |
DIRECT LINKS TO SOME KEY SUBMISSIONS AND TALKS DOWN THE PAGE
RBF seeks to inform concerned persons and organisations that there are ways to reduce highway dependence. We need to look at kinds and volumes of traffic that use the highways now but which don't really need to do so.
RBF's outreach includes every level in the community: Government leaders and academics; industry leaders and front-line workers; persons and firms in rail and road related industries. The millions of travellers and shippers will be reached through school-based programs. Balance Research is not proposing any measure which will take away the right of an individual or company to use the highway system. We are more about making sure that travellers and shippers are aware of the full and true cost of the transportation they choose.
On current trends, even with expected jumps in fuel and road costs and with likely improved services being offered, the total passenger and goods traffic on road will still increase.
What seems to be missing, at all levels of the community, is the right attitude to cars and trucks. Developing the right attitudes will be the key to stemming this relentless growth in highway traffic.
Such a change in attitude can only occur over a generation or two, and it must start in school. There used to be widespread enthusiasm about railways but this has been eroded by years of cynicism and car-centred culture.
The RBF concept includes Metro Freight on Rail (see below), Integrated Storage and Transportation of Dangerous Goods (see below), substantial improvements to cross-metro passenger linkages, underpinned by `real economics', a way of studying the total cost to the community of road-related activities.
A full and successful implementation of RBF principles after a generation or two would lead to a far greater expansion of rail tasks than currently expected, with no growth in highway task.
The financial structure to make this happen will depend on recognition by governments that the costs of handling the next doubling of road traffic will be very great and they can be avoided. The resultant savings, direct and indirect, will need to be shared with the rail industry, whether government owned or privately owned. Otherwise, nothing will happen.
The road transport industry will be changed, gradually, as there
will be less demand for long-distance hauls. Transport management
will doubtless find ways to make money from the improved railway,
and they will become involved in rail and intermodal.
Looking at the volumes and kinds of heavy vehicle movements in the
Melbourne area, it seems that at least a third of the traffic is of
a kind which could be handled satisfactorily by rail. This would
usually involve intermodal transfer at a point near the origin: but
the extra handling would be more than compensated by the reduced
mileage on the highway.
To be effective in reducing highway demand, road-to-rail transfer
stations would need to be located close to each industrial area:
this could result in 30 to 50 such stations in a metropolis the size
of Melbourne (around 3 million people).
This idea is not well received at present: there are a lot of
objections to be answered. To improve the environment for the whole
community, some areas would be burdened with controversial changes.
And there is a lot of work to do in quantifying the savings in
road-related costs (not all of which are cash) to justify the
cost of the new rail facilities.
The goods, arriving at an import terminal, would be placed onto
rail (in tanks or containers) as soon as practicable, and transported
to a non-contentious site where they would be stored `on the ground'
until required at a using plant.
[Similar logic would apply to exports.]
This would have the effect of reducing holdings at port locations,
and removing dangerous goods traffic from the highway except for
the last part of an intermodal journey where the using plant
has no rail access.
The greatest part of the cost would be the investment in intermodal
tanks. Proving the worth of this idea is a major task for Balance
Research, because there is little recognition of the costs borne by
the community in moving dangerous goods by road and in having large
centrally located storages of such goods.
The title of the paper is "Changing Relativities Between Road
and Rail".
The Paper
The title of the paper is "Can Rail be the Solution to Road Traffic
Growth?"
Balance Research asks Council to bear in mind the likely great increases
in rail traffic and need for more platforms in decades to come.
Metro Freight on Rail
MFR is looking at what infrastructure and services would be needed
to attract loads from highway to rail in the context of cross-town
trips. The emphasis, initially, would be on trips to line-haul
rail, seaport and airport facilities.Integrated Storage and Transportation
IST, a scheme proposed by Balance Research, is a system of handling
and storing dangerous goods in intermodal tanks or rail tank cars,
or normal containers in the case of packaged goods .
DIRECT LINKS TO A FEW KEY ITEMS
1999 INTERMODAL CONFERENCE
Michael Isaachsen, director of Balance Research, delivered a paper
to the ICM Intermodal Conference "Keys to Efficient Integration" in
Sydney on 5th November 1999.
Questions and Answers
2000 SYDNEY MEETING
DIRECT LINK
Michael Isaachsen, Director of Balance Research, in privately
giving this paper to a number of rail industry executives in
Sydney on 18 February 2000 said the rail task will have to grow far
more than now contemplated if it is to solve the road traffic problem.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUBMISSION
Balance Research made this submission in reponse to the freight strategy
position paper issued by a number of Councils in the Western Region of
Melbourne, and in response to Maribyrnong Council's statement on the
possible alignment of a railway to Melbourne Airport.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT SUBMISSION
Balance Research made this submission in reponse to Council's position
paper on development of Footscray station precinct into a multi-modal
transport hub including tram, train, bicycle, car and bus modes.
TO SEE ALL THESE AND MORE SUBMISSIONS,
TRY OUR SUBMISSIONS INDEX
Volunteering at Balance Research
Issues involved include environmental economics, road
service costing, futurology of rail-based transport. Duties may
include a lot of reading; liaison with other researchers,
academics, transport organisations and transport users
(mainly businesses); and preparation of papers and reports.