Assessing the employment agglomeration and social accessibility impacts of high speed rail in Eastern Australia

There is growing interest in establishing additional evidence, under the umbrella of the wider economy impacts of transport infrastructure projects, to support transport projects in general and public transport projects in particular that struggle to obtain benefit–cost ratios sufficient to gain the support of financial agencies. This paper focuses on one element of wider economy impacts, often referred to as effective economic (employment) density or employment agglomeration impacts, and another, less usually identified, social accessibility impact (SAI) which we refer to as effective social density, which in broad terms provide, correspondingly, evidence of the potential gains in work-related output (often referred to as productivity gains) and potential gains in non-work-related outputs. Both are associated with gains in individual and household benefit attributable to improved accessibility to services linked with populations and particular locations. The SAIs may capture some of the induced benefits in those jurisdictions where these are included routinely in benefit–cost analysis, and the methodology here is most appropriate to those settings where an existing calibrated demand curve may not be available. Using the proposed high speed rail (HSR) project between Sydney and Melbourne as the empirical setting, we identify economic agglomeration and social accessibility benefits for work and non-work related activity respectively. We find the former to be relatively small compared to the significant gains associated with non-work related travel activity, suggesting the greatest benefits associated with HSR, especially for those residents outside of the major metropolitan areas, will be non-work related travel activity.     

Kiribati seafarers and German container shipping

This article discusses the employment of Kiribati seafarers on German owned and flagged shipping. The authors examine the origins of the German shipping industry sponsored training and recruitment programmes on the Kiribati atolls. The implications of the creation of a manorial ‘internal’ labour market for German container shipping in the South West Pacific is assessed. The impact of labour participation in the international shipping industry on Kiribati's former fisherfolk is also examined.     

Path-planning algorithm for ships in close-range encounters

Efficient maritime navigation through obstructions at close range is still one of the many problems faced by mariners. The increasing traffic densities and average cruise speed of ships also impede the collision avoidance process by reducing the time available for decision making. This study develops a path-planning algorithm that determines an optimal navigation path for ships in close-range encounters, using known and predicted data about the traffic and environment. An improved ship dynamic model has also been developed to better approximate the ship movement under external influences, and the algorithm was evaluated with a set of test cases simulating various traffic scenarios typically encountered at close range. Since the method is based on evolutionary algorithm, the algorithm behaviours were evaluated statistically, where properties such as consistency and practicality of the algorithm outputs are discussed.     

Cybertran: A systems analysis solution to the high cost and low passenger appeal of conventional rail transportation systems

A new transportation system is described. CyberTran is a steel wheel on rail system designed to travel on elevated guideways, utilizing large numbers of 6 to 20 passenger automated vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds. The benefits from these light weight vehicles include dramatically reduced system cost and increased passenger appeal. The system described has been prototyped and tested at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, a U. S. Department of Energy Research and Development Laboratory.     

An empirical assessment of relational competitive advantage in professional ship management

Intense competition in many sectors across the maritime industry and in professional ship management in particular, means that the quest for achieving competitiveness will continue and intensify. A review of the current strategies across many sectors of the industry indicates the importance of forging stable partnerships for the achievement of competitiveness. Considering that the capability to form a relationship is an intangible resource (as depicted in resource-advantage theory), an empirical assessment in the context of ship management was undertaken. The assessment aimed to identify the type of relationships present in ship management, and succeeded in classifying those relationships into four distinct groups. The central thesis of the paper is that maritime organizations in general, and ship management companies in particular, may utilize their intangible relational resources in order to achieve competitive advantage. Based on the classification of ship management relationships, implications for managers are discussed.     

The demand impacts of train punctuality in great britain: systematic review,meta-analysis and some new econometric insights

Transportation - This paper updates and extends the systematic review and meta-analysis of Wardman and Batley (Transportation 41:1041–1069, 2014), which hitherto was the most comprehensive...     

通过多转子防护装置提高潮汐水轮机性能的策略（英文）

Constructive interference between tidal stream turbines in multi-rotor fence configurations arrayed normally to the flow has been shown analytically, computationally, and experimentally to enhance turbine performance. The increased resistance to bypass flow due to the presence of neighbouring turbines allows a static pressure difference to develop in the channel and entrains a greater flow rate through the rotor swept area. Exploiting the potential improvement in turbine performance requires that turbines either be operated at higher tip speed ratios or that turbines are redesigned in order to increase thrust. Recent studies have demonstrated that multi-scale flow dynamics, in which a distinction is made between device-scale and fence-scale flow events, have an important role in the physics of flow past tidal turbine fences partially spanning larger channels. Although the reduction in flow rate through the fence as the turbine thrust level increases has been previously demonstrated, the within-fence variation in turbine performance, and the consequences for overall farm performance, is less well understood. The impact of turbine design and operating conditions, on the performance of a multi-rotor tidal fence is investigated using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes embedded blade element actuator disk simulations. Fences consisting of four, six, and eight turbines are simulated, and it is demonstrated that the combination of device-and fence-scale flow effects gives rise to cross-fence thrust and power variation. These cross-fence variations are also a function of turbine thrust, and hence design conditions,although it is shown simple turbine control strategies can be adopted in order to reduce the cross-fence variations and improve overall fence performance. As the number of turbines in the fence, and hence fence length, increases, it is shown that the turbines may be designed or operated to achieve higher thrust levels than if the turbines were not deployed in a fence configuration.