Strategic models for new railway planning : a New South Wales perspective.

Since 1996, Rail Access Corporation (RAC) has been one of the transport agencies in New South Wales responsible for planning the long term development and evolution of the rail network. During this time RAC, along with other transport agencies, has been working closely with the NSW Department of Transport on the fundamental redesign and redevelopment of its Strategic Travel Model (STM) for Sydney. With a major stage in the development of STM now completed, RAC resolved to make use of the entire model as part of its business development and long term planning process. However, STM remains largely a "modellers" model, accessible only to those familiar with the complexities and sophistication of transport planning software (such as STM's EMME/2 operating platform) and mode choice modelling theory and practice. The study team set itself the task of using this powerful tool so that it might provide RAC with a wider range of planning outputs both for the strategic assessment of new rail lines as well as other data in long term network management and planning. STM is the brain of the model, whilst RAC developed a user friendly interface with the brain covering a wider range of planning needs. The model was styled as RAC's general evaluation network tool (RACGENT) and a number of policy goals were set, including; (1) To produce a computer model interacting with STM that was useable by a number of RAC's planning staff not familiar with transport planning software; (2) To develop a model that produced data for asset and maintenance planning data; (3) To ensure the model remained dynamic and was regularly updated; and (4) To develop a 'sketch planning' model for assessing new rail lines within the metropolitan area. The paper describes the model's evolution and final development and emphasises the importance of transport planning in the wider context of business development and corporate planning for a rail authority. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E205861.