Transport Australia has launched today with a call for a step-change to the funding and management of the nation’s transport system, following new research which shows Australians spend roughly five billion hours travelling across the network each year.
The new industry body, formerly known as Roads Australia, is looking to champion an integrated and sustainable transport system.
Its inaugural research report, Valuing Australia’s Transport Network, shows that transport directly underpins almost every part of the country’s $2.1 trillion economy.
The report argues transport should be understood not as a collection of individual assets or projects, but as a connected national system critical to productivity and everyday life.
“Australians are investing five billion hours a year in getting where they need to go,” said Ehssan Veiszadeh, Transport Australia Chief Executive Officer.
“That time matters for productivity, for family time, and for the cost of living.
“Our role is to connect government and industry around better system outcomes, with a focus on safety, sustainability, and the end user, now and into the future.”
Transport Australia’s report also finds the transport network is under growing pressure, with population growth, heavier freight demand, electrification and more extreme weather increasing strain on the system and raising the cost of underinvestment.
It highlights the scale and significance of the national transport task, including:
- An indicative $10 trillion to $22 trillion replacement value for Australia’s land transport infrastructure;
- a direct economic economic contribution of roughly $189 billion a year, or about nine per cent of gross domestic product, and;
- an estimated annual travel time value of roughly $100 billion.
Related stories:
- Australasian Railway Association welcomes new Infrastructure Priority List
- NT road infrastructure receives support from key university research
- Critical QLD road upgrade to begin
Veiszadeh said that from the report’s findings, the transport network could be improved to reduce these demands on the Australian people.
“The opportunity is to give Australians time back by making the existing network work better through maintenance, smarter operations, better integration between modes, and targeted upgrades that lift reliability and capacity,” he said.
“The biggest gains will come when we stop thinking in silos – you cannot solve housing, productivity, and cost-of-living pressures separately from transport.
“When transport is planned as an integration system, the benefits flow across the economy and into everyday life.”
Transport Australia’s report also includes practical examples of how targeted investment can improve network performance and unlock productivity, including:
- New South Wales’ WestConnex project reducing morning peak travel time between Parramatta and the Sydney CBD by 50 per cent, including freight time savings of around 40 minutes to Port Botany;
- upgrades enabling B-doubles to deliver freight efficiency gains of 15 to 30 per cent, and;
- Victoria’s Murray Basin Rail Plan enabling trains to carry an additional 1,000 tonnes of grain, around a 50 per cent uplift.
Over the next 12 months, Transport Australia will lead a national dialogue with governments, industry, and experts on how Australia defines, measures, and communicates the full value delivered by the transport network.
The Australian Capital Territory-based consultancy group, Scyne, contributed to Transport Australia’s research.
“It is time to shift the dialogue from the cost of transport towards the value the network delivers,” said Raelee Meyers, Managing Director and Scyne.
“In our daily lives, in connecting communities, and in supporting national resilience and the economy.
“With a clever understanding of the true value, we can properly plan for and invest in it.”
