The decline of public transport in Western Australia is observed in four separate
historical studies which narrate the political and administrative history of each major
urban transport mode. Perth's suburban railway system is examined as part of the State's
widespread rail network, including the extravagantly-equipped short-lived suburban
railway in Kalgoorlie. Political interference in early railway operations is studied in
detail to determine why Perth's rail-based public transport systems were so poorly
developed and then neglected or abandoned for much of the twentieth century. The
llnique events in Kalgoorlie at the turn of the century are presented as potent reasons for
the early closure of Perth's urban tramway system and the fact that no purpose-built
suburban railways were constructed in Perth until 1993. The road funding arrangements
of the late nineteenth century are considered next, in order to demonstrate the very early
basis for the present lavish non-repayable grants of money for road construction and
maintenance by all three layers of government. The development of private and
government bus networks is detailed last, with particular attention paid to the failure of
private urban bus operators in the 1950s and the subsequent formation of a government
owned and operated urban bus monopoly. The capital structure and accounting
practices of public transport modes are analysed to provide a critique of popular myths
concerning the merits of each. In order to obtain an impression of the changing political
view of different transport modes, the attitude of politicians to public transport and the
private motor car over the last one hundred and twenty years is captured in summary
narrations of some of the more important parliamentary transport debates. Two possible
explanations of public transport decline are discussed in conclusion; one relying a neoclassical
economic theory of marginal pricing, and the other on an observation on the fate
of large capital investments in the modern party-based democratic system of
government.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/221782 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Peter Cole |
| Publisher | Murdoch University |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.murdoch.edu.au/goto/CopyrightNotice, Copyright Peter Cole |
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