1). The report focuses on the strategic study which was carried out on the development of a High-speed Rail which was to be developed on the east coast of Australia. The implementation was initiated by the minister for transport and infrastructure Hon. Anthony Albanese. The study was carried out in two phases, the first phase was to be undertaken between January and June 2011 which was to assess the; potential regional and social development, The potential future demands which will be needed for the high speed rail, the range of costs which are likely to be incurred and the potential stations and corridors (Grigg, 2016, p. 54).
Phase two of the study mainly focused on the financial feasibility of the High-Speed Rail, identifying the optimum route which was to be followed by the High-Speed Rail, find out the potential financing options which were to be used in the implementation and do the cost estimation of the whole project.
Depending on the combination of the corridors, the reflecting level of confidence for the phase and the combination of the corridors the total cost for implementation of the overall project of ranges between $61 billion and $108 billion. The risk-adjusted cost which was estimated included the stations, land acquisition, city access. Stabling and maintenance facilities, civil and rail infrastructures, power infrastructure, and the ticketing and IT systems (Guthrie, 2017, p. 112).
Some of the corridors which were shortlisted for further analysis in the second phase of the study included; the coastal corridors which were between Newcastle and Brisbane with the potential variation around the Gold cost and the Coastal cities, The central coast corridors between Sydney and Newcastle (Rodriguez, 2015, p. 201). The Princes Highway and The Hume Highway corridors which were between the Canberra and Sydney, through the Southern Highlands.
For the study methodology, a base corridor was used during the study to predict the patronage of the High-Speed Rail which was based on the assumption about the competing modes and forecast travel demand (Hillel, 2017, p. 243). The long listing corridors were identified which were within the study area to enable a wider comparison between the coastal corridors and the inland corridors.
Four categories of High-Speed Rail station were identified; the city center, Regional stations, City-peripheral and the airport stations. The city-peripheral and the city stations were to serve the main city and the larger metropolitan areas, while the regional stations were to link the regional communities to one another and the capital city at large (Jiuping Xu, 2015, p. 107). The airport stations were to provide access to the High-Speed Railway passengers to the air transport services.
The cost was estimated to enable the comparison of the various stations options and the corridors together with other contributing factors and the economic benefits. The cost estimation was based on the strategic information which was available during the first phase of the study, and the probability assessment was undertaken to enable the confirmation of the confidence range for the cost estimation (Kanwar, 2013, p. 143).
Discussion
2.a My Reflect decisions
During the study, I identified that the main stakeholders who were involved in the implementation of the High-speed Rail were the government and people of Australia. I found out that the losses which were incurred during the implementation of the project were linked directly to the people and government of Australia, It’s the government that was to spend the money, and it’s the people of Australia who were to enjoy the benefits which are associated with the implementation of the High-Speed Rail (Blackburn, 2015, p. 453).
From the follow up which I made It was clear that the sustainability and the interest which the government had in implementing the High-Speed Rail was to; generate money and link the different parts of the east coast of Australia, provide affordable means of transport to the growing population of Australia, who are currently using air transport. The rail network which was to be developed was to link different parts of the east coast of Australia thus making it cheaper for people to move from one city to another without any challenge (Dixon, 2014, p. 23).
I identified the related conflicts that may require being resolved such as; loss of agriculture land which was to give room to the passage of the High Speed Rail, in that way the farmers who were depending on agriculture for their livelihood most of them were to be affected, the expected traffic of trains was also to contribute to many challenges which the passengers were to face and the reduction in the demand in the air transport which was to create a very huge loss to the aviation industry as most of the residents of the eastern cost of Australia were to prefer using the High Speed Rail to air transport (Eisner, 2011, p. 76).
Compared to business, as usual, I found out that some of the issues that I might come across in the commissioning and construction of the project were; lack of labour both the skilled and unskilled, lack construction materials and insufficient money also I found out that there are very high chances to face a very tough conflict from the people who were to be displaced to pave the way for the construction of the project.
2.b) The week-by-week content
During the first week of the study, I downloaded the Exec summary of the first phase of the report, and I familiarised myself with the contents of this report such as the key elements of the government position on the implementation of the High-Speed Rail.
The stakeholders and people who were to be affected by the project were identified. The people and government of Australia were to be directly involved in the implementation of the High-Speed Rail in different ways.
The interests and the sustainability of the people who were involved ware also identified during the first week. Also, the conflicts which were related to the implementation of the project were also pointed out during that week.
During the second week of the study, the full report of phase one was downloaded which enabled me to be able to identify the best routes which were able to cover the entire east coast of Australia to avoid wastage of resources.Each of the frameworks which were discussed in topic two was considered and how they were applied to the implementation of the ESHSR. I decided that there should be proper allocation of resources to maintain very high levels of sustainability which was to facilitate the decrease of usage of resources and increase the wealth among the people of Australia.
During the third week of the study, I developed my framework whereby the train was to cover all the major cities and the remote areas which were within the eastern cost of Australia. The various compromises which were to be made and on how the conflict which was to arise were to be dealt with were all considered during his week of study.
The fourth week of study I developed a clear project level according to my concept development whereby the task which was to be carried out during the implementation was divided for each individual, and each member was aware on what he/she was supposed to be working on.
During the fifth week, I developed a delivery process that enabled the sustainability outcomes and the concept design to be developed into a detailed design that was to enable me to realize the expectations of the sustainability. During the sixth week, the project had gone beyond the design stage, and all the focus was shifted towards the overseeing the commissioning and construction.
2.c) Other students’ full Decisions & Reflections Logs
According to one of the students who I reviewed his work ‘the people who were affected or involved in the implementation of the High-Speed Rail included the Latent stakeholders, expectant stakeholders, and the ultimate stakeholders. According to them, the stakeholders were classified according to the power, legitimacy, and urgency.
The decision which was made by the other student who I also reviewed his work was that the stakeholders or the people who were to be affected by the High-speed rail were; Commonwealth Government, Federal Government, Environmental Activist, Australian People and the Land Owners
The students came up with decisions regarding the interests and the sustainability perspective that the latent stakeholders they will pay more interests on impacts which the project will be having on their day to day life and the surrounding environment. The expectant stakeholders they were to shift a lot of their focus on the adverse effects or the beneficial impacts which the High-Speed Rail will have on them, but their sustainability perspective might be to develop a cheap and efficient high-speed rail system which was to provide more job opportunities to the locals where the project was to be implemented.
The ultimate stakeholders have their interests developed in solving the traffic problems that are caused by the population growth through high-speed rail projects. By providing very efficient interstate transportation to the public to reduce the traffic which is existing in the high-speed rail.
According to one of the students who I reviewed is log sheet some of the related conflicts which needs to be resolved include; the conflict which was to arise due to the choice of the route, the conflict between the residents and the construction units, conflict which was to be caused by insufficient electricity, the conflict which was to arise between the existing transport system and the high speed rail system and finally the conflict which was to arise between the environmental protection and the construction efficiency units.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the High-Speed Rail system which was to be implemented on the east coast of Australia was to offer efficient and affordable transport to the residents. The main stakeholders and the people who were to directly affect by the implementation of the project included the Government and people of Australia (Kiritsis, 2011, p. 345).
There are a lot of conflicts which were to be solved before the implementation of the high-speed rail they included; the conflict between the residents near the construction site and the construction unit, the conflict between the environmental protection bodies and the construction company which was focusing on the efficiency of the high speed rail, the conflict between proposed high speed rail system and the existing transport system.
The interest and the sustainability perspectives which the stakeholders had were to make money from the project while linking the different parts of the east coast of Australia which was to make it easier for the people to move from one city to another cheaply instead of using the expensive means of transport such as the air transport.
For the purpose of obtaining sustainability while implementing the high-speed rail system an environmental study was required to be carried out for the additional Goulburn airport, stage gates will be required at different stages of the EPC (Kresic, 2014, p. 32). Transport for the NSW environment and the sustainability framework should be used to carry out the study in a more organized way.
The objective of the study on the implementation of the High-Speed Rail on the east coast of Australia was;
Establish the costs estimates which were required to undertake the next stages of implementation of the projects such as the corridor resumptions and identification of the route alignment.
Find out the stations options and route which were including the construction cost and the interaction with other modes of transport.
Identify the main design requirements and decisions to operate and build a viable High-Speed Rail on the east coast of Australia.
Find out the land which is not yet developed or the existing corridors that were to be considered for preservation strategies and High-Speed Railway network.
Provide the options and advice on the relevant construction, financial, environmental and engineering considerations.
The study which was carried out drew on the international experience on the construction and planning of the High-Speed Rail networks. An international advisory panel provided advice on the applying experience in the Australian context (Kauffman, 2016, p. 34). Phase two of the study was to provide further advice on the refine patronage demand, system applications, and complimentary projects, commercial and financial viability and identify preferred stations and corridors. A base year was required, and 2036 was used for appraisal as a common date for common assessment (Tammemagi, 2016, p. 112).
The study area was identified regarding references to the area which was between Melbourne and Brisbane which are located on the east coast of Australia.
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