On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Gabrial Anandarajah wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I'm a PhD student of University College Dublin. I'm doing a questionnaire
> survey to rate the improtance of the factors which effect the prioritization
> of railway projects for investment. There are nine quantifiable factors and
> four qualititaitve goals in the questionnaire. The text format of the
> questionnaire is below this mail. I would be grateful if you could please
> put your rating within the parenthesis in the reply to this mail.
>
> "This survey is being conducted by University College Dublin, Ireland in
> order to measure the degree of importance of the factors/goals in
> prioritization of railway projects for investment"




Firstly, you should state you are talking about passenger projects and
clarify whether you mean intercity or urban systems.

>
> Name: Jonathan Richmond
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> Rate how important the following factors/goals are in indicating
> prioritization of railway projects for investment
> Use a scale of 1 to 5, 1=not important, 5=very important
>
> Quantifiable factors
> 1. Capital cost of the project (   )

Relative to what?

> 2. Additional passengers to train due to project (   )

Relative to what? Are you interested in additional passengers to rail or
to public transport as a whole?

> 3. Total economic benefits of the projects (   )

In what terms?

> 4. Increase in revenue to railway due to the project (   )

Who owns the railway? Is the railway getting a public subsidy?

> 5. User benefits due to the project (   )

In what terms?

> 6. Safety/accident benefits due to the project (   )
> 7. Car resource cost savings due to the project (   )

What does this mean?

> 8. Net present value of the project (   )

How is this calculated?

> 9. Benefit/cost ratio of the project     (   )

Hos is this calculated?

> Qualitative goals (benefits of the projects are analyzed using
> multi-criteria analysis)

What are these goals, and how are we to assess their importance relative
to the quantitative ones?


> 10. To exploit the particular strengths of rail to provide a high quality
> integrated and competitive public transport service      (   )

What does this mean? How do we know that non-rail modes can't do the job
better? Are you not considering alternatives at all?


> 11. To support land use, social and economic policy at local, national and
> regional level (   )

Have you proved this can be accomplished?

> 12. To improve environmental quality and health (   )

What evidence is there that these results would actually materialize?


> 13. To promote sound project selection measures (i. relevant scoping and
> feasibility studies, ii. safety, accessibility and other standards met, and
> iii. on-going and documented formal consultation with public and statutory
> bodies) (   )

What makes you think these are "sound project selection measures?" What
about a study of goals and needs and unbiased comparison of alternative
modal strategies?

                                      --Jonathan Richmond


>
> If you have any question, please contact
> Gabrial Anandarajah, Department of Civil Engineering, Earlsfort Terrace,
> University College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>         [log in to unmask]
>
> Thank you for your cooperation
>
> Best regards,
> Gabrial Anandarajah
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-----

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