Transport Integration Act video transcript
This page is a transcript of the video about the Transport Integration Act.
Jim Betts
Secretary, Department of Transport:
Howdy everybody, I'd like to talk to you about the Transport Integration Act.
Over the last couple of years, we've been, in the Department of Transport, we've been articulating a series of philosophical principles. I guess one of the most important is that we only have one transport system. We don't have competing transport systems – road vs rail, public transport vs roads. That stuff is old thinking.
We have a single transport system and it all needs to be looked at in an integrated way. One transport system performing multiple tasks.
Transport's not just an end in itself. It's about moving people and moving goods and doing so in a way that is environmentally efficient and enables new levels of access and accessibility and so the challenge for us is to meet the demands of rising population while maintaining the liveability that makes Melbourne and Victoria so special, and, we can only do that if we take into account that triple bottom line philosophy, which is enshrined in the Act.
[Vision of trams moving on a city road, a train entering a station platform, cars on a busy road, and a freight train being loaded is also shown while Jim Betts speaks.]
Professor John Stanley
Institute of Transport and Logistic Studies, The University of Sydney
I think this legislation is going to become know very quickly as international best practice. I like to think of things the way the Europeans do, the way they separate out the strategic or policy level from the tactical or system design level and the operational level. And, internationally, the area where we're weakest is the system design level and one of the reasons we're weak at that level is we don't have the policy framework right.
I think this legislation sets a new standard, in terms of defining the government's vision, the goals that it wants to see pursued with respect to that vision and then sitting underneath that, the guiding principles that the agencies need to take into account when you're pursuing those goals. That's coupled with a substantial institutional reform that will drive a more integrated approach and I think that combination of the high level framework and the institution mechanisms to deliver it will be what makes this legislation unique.
Dr Michael Kennedy
CEO Morning Peninsula Shire Council and specialist in intermodal transport systems
The difficulty with a traditional legislative base is it's about rules, it's about avoiding failure and it basically, people turn their brains off and they simply optimise down here. They optimise the way the rail system works or they optimise the way other parts of the system works. The really exciting thing about this legislation is it encourages people to think, in fact, it requires people to think and to look at how the different parts of the total system work together to achieve sustainable outcomes.
All of the people making hundreds of thousands of decisions need to be clear on what the collective goal is and how they contribute to that. And, it's truly revolutionary to have legislation that invites and encourages and requires people to think and to do that collectively, rather than individually, and that is amazing stuff.
[Vision of trams moving on a city road is also shown while Dr Michael Kennedy speaks.]
Gillian Miles
Deputy Secretary – Strategic Transport Planning, Department of Transport
Ports Inner West is a fantastic example of the objectives of the Transport Act in play. We basically have a part of the state – west, inner west – which has a lot of activity in it.
All planned, happening, underway at the moment. Some of them transport projects, some of them are urban design projects, some of them are development projects by the private sector.
A whole bunch of activity all happening, including the port, that need to be looked at together because we're talking about one bit of land that's really, really important for the future of the state.
The objective of the Act actually help facilitate that discussion.
[Vision of the West Gate Bridge and construction underneath the bridge, a ship in the port, and the port in general is also shown while Gillian Miles speaks.]
Rob Freemantle
Executive Director Network and Transport Planning, VicRoads
To me, the Transport Integration Act is common sense. It's like having a checklist to help us achieve good transport outcomes. An example is VicRoads' network operation plans, which we are calling SmartRoads.
There are two key features of SmartRoads. The first is to manage the limited road space by allocating priority to different transport modes at different times of the day. The second is to ensure that the operation of the road is consistent with the adjacent land use.
Now, these two key features are important elements, described in the Transport Integration Act.
[Vision of a road sign, a tram in motion, cars and cyclists using the same road, and cars and trams using the same road is also shown while Rob Freemantle speaks.]
Adele McCarthy
Deputy Project Leader – Melbourne Metro 1, Department of Transport
We found the policy framework useful in my project, the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel. We've just recently worked through an options assessment about where new stations should go.
This is obviously a very big investment decision for Victoria. It's not just about new stations providing a good transport outcome, but also about shaping the city. In working through the options assessment, we've obviously needed to consider a whole lot of different dimensions, right across the triple bottom line and the views of stakeholders and others.
We've put that all into the mix and, where we found the legislation useful, was you get down into the detail on these questions and there was a time there where we just needed to map all of our assessment back against the legislation. Have we got it right? Is there anything we've missed or anything we should be thinking about differently? And, I found it really useful as a cross-check.
[Vision of a new station simulation and an aerial view of the city is also shown while Adele McCarthy speaks.]
Ray Kinnear
Deputy Director of Public Transport, Strategic Planning and Development
Within my work, I'm planning of the future and this legislation is an opportunity to be much clearer about where we want to go in the future. So, I've been doing sort of planning work now for a number years and, under the old legislation, I didn't pick up the legislation physically once during all of that time because it had absolutely no bearing and no shape or direction to where we might want to go, in my case, with public transport planning.
The fact that we now have a legislation which actually gives some drive, some direction where we want to go is a huge step forward in my work. We are going through a new round of developing of public transport strategy.
I've gone straight to the legislation, there's a set of objectives in there, that's sort of page 1 of the strategy. Obviously you have develop that and interpret that as to what it means for the strategy that you are developing, but essentially, it provides the whole framework for the sort of work that I do.
[Vision of a tram in motion, on the road, and cars, cyclists and trams using the same road is also shown while Ray Kinnear speaks.]
Dr Michael Kennedy
CEO Morning Peninsula Shire Council and specialist in intermodal transport systems
I think if it is implemented as well as I'm sure everybody hopes that it will, I think that it will have a significant change, because whether it's people who are running the buses and running the trains and all the other parts of the system, or whether it's local government, traffic engineers, people who are looking at questions of clearways, as opposed to the interests of local traders and so on.
If they keep going back and looking at what the charter says, about what the goals are, because it's always about saying what does success look like, what is the big picture goal and how does each individual decision impact on that?
Now, legislation in the past, has not encouraged people to do that. I think, if you look around Australia and the varying approaches that are being applied, none of which are as forward-looking as what is happening in Victoria, what we know is that the states do ultimately learn from each other and I think that it will be something that others can look to.
[Vision of a train in motion on the rail tracks is also shown while Dr Michael Kennedy speaks.]
Professor John Stanley
Institute of Transport and Logistic Studies, The University of Sydney:
We need transformational change in Australia and Victoria's land transport systems at the moment. The high-level performance indicators, in terms of congestion, greenhouse gas emissions, social exclusion are not improving and transformational change is the only way we'll deliver that. Now, transformational change is not easy to achieve but one of the things it requires, is the sort of enabling framework that this legislation that Victoria has put into place, will provide.
Jim Betts
Secretary, Department of Transport
Don't underestimate the revolutionary nature of the change that we're seeing here. This is embedding twenty first century principles into everything that we do in transport. It sets up the intellectual bedrock for all of our activities, whether it's in operations, it's in project delivery, it's in project design, it's in long term planning. This is modern, progressive stuff and it's revolutionary in the sense that it brings us screaming into the twenty first century and, I believe, that this is the most progressive transport legislation anywhere in the world.
Final slides
Vision: Victoria aspires to have an integrated and sustainable transport system that contributes to an inclusive, prosperous and environmentally responsible state
Objectives:
1. Social and economic inclusion
2. Economic prosperity
3. Environmental sustainability
4. Integration of transport and land use
5. Efficiency, coordination and reliability
6. Safety, health and wellbeing
Decision-making principles
1. Integrated decision-making
2. Triple bottom line assessment
3. Equity
4. Transport system user perspective
5. The precautionary principle
6. Stakeholder engagement and community participation
7. Transparency
Return to the Transport Integration Act page.