Page 2636 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 15 August 2017
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planning and renewal, sustainability and active travel infrastructure with public transport is also a significant focus for this government.
Learning from international experts on the successes and failures of cities around the world helps us to achieve this vision. That is why in May this year my senior adviser, the Deputy Director-General for Transport Canberra, and I undertook this visit. The North American mission was designed to: foster global contacts in the transport industry; consider current developments across the entire spectrum of the public transportation sector from around the world; learn from the experiences and successes of countries and cities globally on transport technologies and infrastructure developments; identify new technologies for users of public transport and operators managing and maintaining it; and raise the profile of the ACT government’s transport agenda.
Before I detail the mission’s activities, Madam Acting Speaker, allow me to briefly detail the summit and the study tour. The summit was a unique international event with a long history covering all urban transportation modes. It detailed a program of congress sessions, with an exhibition of the latest solutions, innovations and products in public transport and urban mobility. Attendees included delegates from around the world, including representatives of public transportation authorities and private sector organisations.
Immediately following the summit, the delegates attended an eight-day North American study tour covering rail, bus, light rail, road transport and other relevant modes, organised by the Australia and New Zealand regional offices of UITP. It also addressed a wide range of issues, including technology, systems, operations, maintenance, strategy and policy matters. The study tour was attended by UITPANZ officials, senior public transportation officials from Australia and New Zealand, and representatives of private sector organisations.
The delegation observed that the public transportation sector is in a state of rapid global change. Delegates at the conference talked less about transport and more about mobility and the rider or passenger. Multiple sessions discussed mobility as a service, integrating previously distinct forms of transport across public and private sectors to provide a seamless service. Think of it almost like the Netflix of transport: you pay a subscription to access a range of services; they might be old or new, original or bought.
New technologies and new market entrants provide a source of tremendous opportunity for public transport users and operators. However, the task of predicting what public transport systems may look like in the future has become more difficult. For example, new ticketing technologies promise to improve the ease with which passengers may interact with public transportation systems. With our current MyWay contract set to expire within the next 12 months this element of the tour was of particular interest to us.
We saw firsthand how fuel technologies like those used in battery and hybrid electric buses promise significant environmental and operational benefits for a city like Canberra. At the same time, the emergence of autonomous vehicles may come to
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