Optimal Contracting and Incentives for Public Transport on Sydney: What has been learned from the Sydney Metro experience?

Rhonda Daniels, Cameron Gordon, Corinne Mulley, Nick Stevens

Research output: A Conference proceeding or a Chapter in BookConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

The New South Wales (NSW) government created the Sydney Metro Authority to design, build and operate a completely separate underground Metro rail system to supplement the existing public transport network in Sydney. By the time the NSW government abruptly cancelled the entire Metro project in early 2010, the Authority had conceived and designed a contract that was proceeding to procurement. This paper examines the nature of the proposed Sydney Metro contract in relation to its performance framework and compares this to the frameworks in current contracts for bus, rail and ferry public transport in NSW. Against this background, the paper examines the extent to which the Sydney Metro approach has had an impact on subsequent public transport contracts in the context of the literature on optimal contracting and optimal incentives. The paper concludes that little has been implemented, although the other mode contracts now enable more performance measurement and incentivisation. In particular, the decision to award contracts to existing (and mostly public sector) operators appears to have acted as a brake on developing these performance elements.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAustralian Transport Research Forum 2011 Proceedings
Place of PublicationAdelaide
PublisherUniversity of South Australia
Pages1-19
Number of pages19
Publication statusPublished - 2011
EventAustralian Transport Forum 2011 - Adelaide, Australia
Duration: 28 Sept 201130 Sept 2011

Conference

ConferenceAustralian Transport Forum 2011
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityAdelaide
Period28/09/1130/09/11

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