In this Issue

Users of the transport system the world over are becoming more mode agnostic, with an appetite to travel or move freight differently than in the past. This is creating increased pressure to ensure that all parts and modes of the system work efficiently, effectively, safely and sustainably under a range of conditions. While broadening our focus to the system, however, we should not take our collective eye off the basics, nor should we lose sight of the need to progress mature technologies to extract greater value from them.

This issue of our Journal reflects the complexity of this growing challenge. Papers are referred to by first author only for ease of reference.

NTRO’s Executive Director of rail, Natalie Loughborough, outlines the challenges facing the rail sector’s contribution to transport. One of NTRO’s younger professionals, Donald Shackleton, effectively presents a challenge to the rail industry with a pen-picture of the rail ecosystem and services in Korea.

Jason Sprott has written a short outline of some of the challenges and opportunities facing the global maritime industry and relates those back to the Australian and New Zealand context.

Cassandra Simpson demonstrates the value of bringing existing road-based knowledge and technology to bear on new challenges in modes other than roads. She highlights some work that has been done in modernising runway assessments using world-leading iPAVe technology to deliver better technical and operational outcomes.

Safety of transport system users will always be a priority for responsible stewards and users of the system. Paul Hillier’s note raises some ideas around competency sets in road safety. MacGregor Buckley and Sepehr Dehkordi describe an approach to using deep learning to identify hazardous locations on transport systems.

Sustainability of transport assets is as important to users and owners as safety. Georgia O’Connor’s paper runs the sustainability lens over tunnels, while Dr Chrysoula Pandelidi outlines an approach to making road surface binders more sustainable in the longer term.

For those who enjoy the hardcore analysis of transport infrastructure, Dr Negin Zhalehjoo has collaborated with two pavement engineering legends to present the findings of some recent work on back calculation of pavement and subgrade moduli.