Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) - Public Transport

loco_scolo

I was wondering what is / is not included in a standard Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) for public transport in Ireland, or other countries.

In the Western Rail Corridor (WRC) thread in Transport and Commuting, I was questioning the validity of the EY Report prepared on reopening the line north of Athenry.

I'm not creating this thread to specifically question that report, but it brought up some interesting points on how to prepare a CBA. Putting an economic value on Time Savings, Noise, Property Value etc is very subjective. I was hoping someone could bring some clarity or share CBA reports for other projects.

Although I disagree with the EY Report (I believe they made significant, fundamental errors - namely the speed of the train versus car), however it was a really well put together Report and they laid out their CBA very clearly.

WRC Phase 2 and 3 - EY Review.pdf

blanch152

The basic model is a good idea.

However, it can be skewed by several factors, change the rate of return and you can completely change the outcome. Externalities such as environmental savings can be hard to calculate and value.

Get any of these things wrong and the whole result is flawed.

Alkers

I have zero experience with rail but the roads process is well set out in TII publications, for example

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.tiipublications.ie/library/PE-PAG-02019-02.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjt8fyMsNSFAxWWUkEAHSUABNAQFnoECB0QAQ&usg=AOvVaw10pyv6eDVunhWTHgm_jNon