An Action Learning Course
  
24-25 August 2006
Rydges Hotel
Cnr Grey & Glenelg Sts
South Bank, Brisbane
 

Overview:

The Australian government has introduced AusLink, a new policy for improved planning and accelerated development of Australia's land transport infrastructure. It will transform the planning and funding of Australia's national roads, railways and inter-modal terminals by taking a long-term, strategic approach to future needs. AusLink introduces new demands for the application of cost-benefit analysis to transport projects, with success in gaining finance linked to the quality and results of evaluations. The course outlines the features of recently released national evaluation guidelines.

This course outlined principles that underlie economic evaluations, and the framework for economic evaluation, so that participants understood the context, objectives, approach and use of economic evaluation. The course briefly addressed other types of evaluation to give participants a broader perspective of the role and practice of economic evaluation. Particular consideration was given to multicriteria analysis that encompasses the objectives of triple-bottom line evaluation.

Insights were gained through discussion of practical issues such as the importance of the Base Case and its definition; estimation of project costs; differences between market, perceived and resource prices; the role of generalised cost; valuation of benefits; the evaluation period; residual values; and sensitivity testing. Participants were involved in the evaluation of several projects, including an intersection upgrading, improvement of a section of road, and an improvement that has major network effects.

Finally, the course addressed the link between transport demand models and cost-benefit studies. In particular it addressed the way in which data from the models needs to be used to correctly determine project benefits and errors that are commonly made in estimating these benefits. These errors are often very significant and sometimes can dramatically change the results of an evaluation.

Who should attend:

The course was beneficial to staff of government agencies and consultants who were involved in planning and evaluation of transport projects, and for those who managed and used the results of such evaluations

 

The course has concluded hence registration is no longer available.
Course costs:

FULL: $1,210
GROUP: $990

The EERIP Course Flyer contains all the information about the course and registration details:

Short Course Flyer
 

Course Leader:

David Bray is the principal of Economic and Policy Services Pty Ltd. He holds degrees in economics and engineering, and has 32 years of professional experience as a consultant and government employee. He has worked mostly in the transport and urban development sectors in Australia and in twentyone other countries. He has prepared economic evaluations for a large number and wide range of transport projects for governments in Australia and for international agencies such as the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and the Asian Development Bank.

Presenters:

Philip Sayeg of Policy Appraisal Services has 29 years of experience in transport planning and policy projects both gained as a consultant and in Government. With qualifications in engineering, management and urban planning, his experience includes planning, operational analysis and evaluation of major public transport and road projects in Australia, Asia and the Pacific. As a former Director of PPK Consultants (now Parsons Brinckerhoff Pty Ltd) he managed their Brisbane Office for a period of 5 years, was based in Asia for several years and returned to Australia after a period in Asia in 1995. Apart from domestic clients, he works regularly with the World Bank and other international agencies.

Luis Ferreira is Professor in Transport at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). He has worked for 27 years in technical and managerial roles covering transport planning, research, management and consultancy. Luis has a strong multi-modal technical and management background encompassing road and rail, freight and passenger transport. Before joining QUT, Luis held senior management roles in Australian National Rail, Travers Morgan a major Australian Consultant, and was part of a team which undertook a major urban transportation study (Johannesburg). In those roles he has had practical experience in the evaluation of strategic transport options and major capital projects..

Phil Charles is Professor of Transport Strategy and Director of the Centre for Transport Strategy at the University of Queensland in Brisbane. He has over 30 years experience in transport infrastructure and strategy development, institutional development and appraisal in Australia and the Asia-Pacific. He has undertaken senior management roles in New South Wales and Western Australian state road agencies, as chief executive of a national association AUSTROADS and as a transport consultant with Booz Allen Hamilton.

 

  
 

 

Course Program:

DAY 1: Thursday 24 August 2006

start 8:30

Session 1: Strategic framework
Addressing needs to monitoring outcomes.
Government desired outcomes. Importance of the
right framework. The Project cycle. Project
preparation. Performance measurement. AusLink
requirements. (Charles/ Bray)

Session 2. Urban road project planning & appraisal
• Lecture on key aspects of transport planning
theory, generalised costs for modelling &
evaluation, value of time, sources of information
• Right modelling tools — urban transport models
pros and cons
• Differences between small and large urban areas
• Common pitfalls — bridging the gap between
transport analysis & economic evaluation
(Ferreira/Bray)

Session 3. Estimating project benefits
• Review of DMR/QT approach
• Principles of economic analysis, externalities,
difference between economic & financial
• Defining the base case
• Calculation of road user benefit including freight
• Mode switching benefit (Sayeg/Bray)

lunch 12:00-1:00

Session 4. Practical exercises
Group exercise: calculating generalised costs;
estimating benefits for intersection and road link
improvement projects; discuss the effect of
different sources of data on benefit valuation;
estimating external benefits; introduction to
estimation of benefits when using travel demand
model output

close 5:00

DAY 2: Friday 25 August 2006

start 8:30
Brief summary of Day One

Session 5. Costs, discounted cash flow analysis,
and risk analysis
• Establishing Project and Base Case costs
• interpreting and applying discounted cash flow
analysis
• Choice of decision criteria
• Differences between economic, financial and
financing analyses
• Undertaking risk analysis and sensitivity testing
(Charles/Bray)

Session 6. Practical exercise
Putting it all together: complete intersection and
road link evaluations, including calculate net present
value, benefit-cost ratio, internal rate of return, and
sensitivity testing; discuss the estimation of benefits
when using travel demand model output; calculate
benefits when using model output, in particular the
limited validity of use of fixed matrix approaches for
transport modelling and evaluation and discuss
common errors; identify key briefing points for
transport modellers so that they provide data in the
correct format; discuss when it is valid to include
region-wide economic benefits such as effects on
employment etc.

Session 7. Other approaches
Multi-criteria analysis, AusLink adjusted benefit cost
approach; cost effectiveness, incidence/ distributional
analysis (Sayeg/Bray)

Session 8. Group discussion
• Discuss how to apply the principles to evaluate other
projects that are currently being proposed
• Review findings & link to policy
• Discuss issues eg data quality
• Lessons learnt from course (Bray/Sayeg)

close 1:00

 

  
     

For further information please contact:

Philip Sayeg
tel: 07 3844 5266
email: p.sayeg@uq.net.au

Disclaimer: The information on this website is correct at the time of publishing.
The Organisers reserve the right to cancel or change any aspect of the program without notice.