The marine electronic highway in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore—an assessment of costs and key benefits

The Straits of Malacca and Singapore are an important trade route linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. They are also rich in resources and support a range of activities that benefit the economies of the littoral states (Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore). This important shipping route is a very congested waterway and the authorities are keen to improve navigation facilities to promote ship safety and reduce the risk of groundings, collisions and accidents. This will also help to protect the marine environment from the effects of pollution and hence reduce its damaging impact on activities related to the Straits, e.g. fisheries and tourism. The Marine Electronic Highway (MEH) is an attempt to bring together maritime safety technologies and environmental management systems. The paper examines the costs of providing such a highway and considers some of the benefits which could accrue from its implementation. The analysis, conducted in the form of a cost-benefit study, clearly shows the economic viability of the scheme.     

Total cost analysis: An alternative to benefit-cost analysis in evaluating transportation alternatives

This paper explains the theory in support of total cost analysis (TCA) to compare transportation system alternatives. The full costs of each alternative are first aggregated, including travel time costs and monetizable environmental and social costs. Many costs which are considered on the benefits side of the equation in benefit-cost analysis (BCA) as "cost savings" are brought over to the costs side. Total cost differences among alternatives are then traded off against their estimated non-monetized benefits or impacts, just as a consumer trades off product quality against cost before deciding which product he or she will buy. One advantage of TCA over traditional BCA is that the concept of "total cost" is more easily understood by the public and by political decision-makers than BCA concepts such as "net present worth", "benefit-cost ratio" and "internal rate of return". A second advantage is that there is no suggestion that all "benefits" have been considered; decision-makers are free to use their own value judgements to trade off total cost against non-monetizable social, environmental and economic impacts, just as they trade off quality and convenience against cost when purchasing goods and services in their roles as consumers. The TCA approach is demonstrated in this paper through a case study of two systemwide alternatives for the Baltimore, MD urban area.     

Developments in UK shipping: the tonnage tax

The new UK Government, elected in May 1997, came to power with a commitment to reverse the decline of the UK shipping industry and enhance the employment prospects of UK seafarers. The Government commissioned Lord Alexander of Weedon to investigate the case for a tonnage tax. In this paper, the economic arguments for supporting the UK shipping industry are reviewed. There is some evidence that the UK holds a comparative advantage in world markets in key sectors of the shipping industry and on-shore maritime related activities, but is being undermined by lower foreign taxes. In the absence of government support, the UK shipping industry is likely to continue to decline, and, by further reducing the supply of qualified UK ex-seafarers, put at risk the successful on-shore activities. Various measures that might be used to support a national shipping industry, e.g. a tonnage tax, are considered. The paper concludes by discussing the likely impact of the tonnage tax on the UK's shipping industry.     

保护客运系统 应对恐怖威胁

2006年7月11日，印度孟买发生了七连环爆炸案，造成数百余平民伤亡。对此，公共交通国际联会深感悲痛，并对恐怖主义袭击公共交通的犯罪行为给予强烈遣责，如何预防事件发生，事件发生后的应付，以及如何做好善后的处理工作是摆在国家政府及公共交通管理部门面前的重大问题。     

Planning with vision: The development of traffic strategies for Melbourne

This paper describes an approach to the development of metropolitan transport strategies based on community needs and values. A search conference and other consultation methods were used to raise community awareness of transport issues and to give the transport planners an understanding of community concerns and values. The collective values were used to develop a vision statement of where Melbourne could be in the future. Transport strategies were then developed which helped achieve the vision. By this approach transport strategies can be integrated with the delivery of other services so that they are complementary and achieve consistent ends. The process encouraged community debate and helped strategy development to focus on what was to be achieved, rather than on particular techniques or interest group agendas. Integrated strategies which have wide interest group and community support can be developed by the process.     

Quantifying the benefit of responsive pricing and travel information in the stochastic congestion pricing problem

This paper is concerned with roadway pricing amidst the uncertainty which characterizes long-term transportation planning. Uncertainty is considered both on the supply-side (e.g., the effect of incidents on habitual route choice behavior) and on the demand-side (e.g., due to prediction errors in demand forecasting). The framework developed in this paper also allows the benefits of real-time travel information to be compared directly against the benefits of responsive pricing, allowing planning agencies to identify the value of these policy options or contract terms in publicly-operated toll roads. Specifically, six scenarios reflect different combinations of policy options, and correspond to different solution methods for optimal tolls. Demonstrations are provided on both the Sioux falls and Anaheim networks. Results indicate that providing information to drivers implemented alongside responsive tolling may reduce expected total system travel time by over 9%, though more than 8% of the improvement is due to providing information, with the remaining 1% improvement gained from responsive tolling.     

Developments in UK shipping: the tonnage tax

The new UK Government, elected in May 1997, came to power with a commitment to reverse the decline of the UK shipping industry and enhance the employment prospects of UK seafarers. The Government commissioned Lord Alexander of Weedon to investigate the case for a tonnage tax. In this paper, the economic arguments for supporting the UK shipping industry are reviewed. There is some evidence that the UK holds a comparative advantage in world markets in key sectors of the shipping industry and on-shore maritime related activities, but is being undermined by lower foreign taxes. In the absence of government support, the UK shipping industry is likely to continue to decline, and, by further reducing the supply of qualified UK ex-seafarers, put at risk the successful on-shore activities. Various measures that might be used to support a national shipping industry, e.g. a tonnage tax, are considered. The paper concludes by discussing the likely impact of the tonnage tax on the UK's shipping industry.     

Maintaining the maritime skills base: does the Government have a realistic strategy?

The UK has a requirement for people with seafaring expertise to fill a wide range of jobs in the maritime-related sector of the economy ashore. The pool of seagoing ships' officers has now reached the level where shore-based demand for such officers cannot be satisfied by natural wastage from this pool alone. This paper considers the implications of this for the Government's recently announced strategy for maintaining the maritime skills base. The paper concludes that it is inevitable that the Government's present strategy will fail, and suggests what measures need to be taken if the skills base is to be saved.