In late 1996 the Public Transport Advisory Council (PTAC), which advises the New South Wales Minister for Transport on the community's public transport needs, was asked to provide the Minister with recommendations regarding the future use of light rail in the state. The NSW Department of Transport assisted in preparing a PTAC Light Rail Strategic Plan for NSW. The major challenge to this strategic planning process was the need to meet the sometimes divergent expectations of modal technology experts, relatively uninformed but enthusiastic local communities, and government stakeholders. The paper describes the strategic planning process that was invented in an attempt to allow these different voices to be heard. Key elements reviewed include: (1) the creation of strategic planning tools for the identification of proposed transport improvement corridors; (2) the innovative manipulation and interpretation of transport and land use data held by the Department's Transport Data Centre; (3)community feedback on the completed initiative. This review is followed by the proposition of a number of generic principles for the planning of light rail or other "intermediate" passenger transport corridors. The development of these principles, offered to stimulate debate in this area, has been informed by the Department's participation in the preparation of the PTAC Light Rail Strategic Plan. (A)
Abstract