The productivity of Australia's railways in the 20th century: consequences for a growing, sustainable industry.

The analysis of the long-term economic trends of the rail industry in Australia has been rare, with early 20th century economists focusing on the first few decades of the century and contemporary studies rarely extending back further than 1970. In part, this analytical shortfall is due to a lack of useful data, and to this end, the Planning and Transport Research Centre (PATREC) is building a database covering the economic aspects of Australia's railways from Federation until the present day. It is hoped that, once developed, this database will stimulate more economic analysis of the industry. This paper represents some preliminary analysis of long-term productivity trends in Australia's railways, utilising an early version of the growing database. Section two of this paper describes the modelling procedures and data used. Section three presents the productivity results and some brief analysis. Section four concludes, and suggests some policy lessons for sustainability based on the past century of productivity growth within the railways. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E216058.