A presentation by SMART Infrastructure Facility Advisory Council Member, Dr Richard Sharp (Principal, ARUP) to the International Symposium For Next Generation Infrastructure, Vienna, 30 September - 1 October 2014.

2. Service Performance Indicators for
Infrastructure Investment
Presented by Dr Richard Sharp
Authors:
Richard Sharp - Principal, Arup Pty Ltd
Phil Manners - Director, The Centre for International Economics
Brenna Moore - Economist, The Centre for International Economics
Dean Rodrigues - Consultant, Arup Pty Ltd
© 2014 Arup and The CIE

3. The Problem – urbanisation, high investment
but a large infrastructure “deficit”
Source: Department of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics,
Australian Infrastructure Statistics Yearbook 2013
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 3

4. Its importance – prioritising scarce investment
Source: Engineers Australia, Analysing Australia’s Infrastructure Trends, 2013.
Note: ‘Work commenced’ refers to existing projects where work is ongoing, whereas ‘work yet to be completed’
refers to new projects about to commence
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 4

5. Previous approaches – scorecards and ratings –
challenges
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 5

6. A different focus - outcomes
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 6

7. Cross-sector approach and categorisation
ENERGY WATER
Electricity
TRANSPORT
Road Rail
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 7
Potable
COMMUNICATIONS
Voice Data
Commuter Freight
Source: Arup and the CIE

8. Focus on end user
• reliability: the ability of the infrastructure to meet normal or
current demand
• stability: the consistency of the infrastructure service provided
• safety: the safeness of the infrastructure for those who use it
• resilience: the ability of the infrastructure to respond in the event
of unusual demand
For example….
• reliability: interruptions to water or electricity supply, proportion of trains running on time,
road congestion in response to normal traffic demand
• stability: drops in water pressure, surges in electricity
• safety: compliance with drinking water standards, frequency of road accidents
• resilience: road congestion in response to an unusual event, internet download speeds
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 8

9. Clear terminology, simple framework
‘performance metric’? 
‘benchmark’? 
‘performance indicators’ 
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 9

10. ‘SMART’ indicators (adapted from Drucker and others)
• specific: unambiguous, and a direct measure of performance that
cannot be confounded by other factors
• measurable: a quantitative (not qualitative) measure of
performance, that is ideally already collected (and public)
• attributable: measures performance that is, ideally, directly
attributable to the specific infrastructure network
• results-oriented: measures infrastructure outcomes, not inputs or
outputs
• trackable: can be expected to change over time as performance
improves or worsens.
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 10

11. Sectors and previous studies
Source: Arup and the CIE
• Bureau of Industry Economics (Australia), International Benchmarking Overview (1995)
• US Chamber of Commerce, Transportation Performance Index (2010)
• OECD, Options for Benchmarking Infrastructure Performance (2012)
• New Zealand Treasury, Infrastructure Performance Indicator Framework Development (2013)
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 11

12. Water Supply – What’s important (to end users) ?
• quality of water supply — that it is clean and drinkable
• reliability of water supply — water ‘always comes out of the tap’ without
interruption
• communications between water businesses and their customers —bills that are
easy to understand and pay
• usage patterns — for households to benchmark their own personal water
saving/usage performance
• price trends — how a household’s water bill compares with those of other
households of similar composition or in the area
• customer service — that is responsive to needs, and
• water business spend and investment — including investment in
environmental conservation and sustainable water use.
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 12

13. Water Supply – Recommended Indicators
Outcomes area Indicator
Safety
Incidences of non-compliance with State/Territory legislation on drinking water quality per
1 000 properties
Reliability Number of unplanned interruptions per 1 000 properties
Reliability Average duration of unplanned interruptions
Resilience Indicator on water security — not currently publicly reported
Source: Arup and the CIE
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 13

14. Energy and Communications
Energy
Outcomes area Indicator
Reliability Frequency of supply interruptions (SAIFI)
Reliability Duration of unplanned supply interruptions (SAIDI)
Stability
Indicator for electricity supply quality based on aggregate score from frequency of voltage
fluctuations, waveform distortions and voltage unbalances
Source: Arup and the CIE
Communications
Source: Arup and the CIE
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 14

15. Roads
Outcomes area Indicator
Reliability Variability of travel times (for a given time of day)
Reliability Congestion indicator (delay compared to free flow traffic)
Stability
Travel comfort indicator (Based on aggregated score from: Ride Comfort (RCI),
Surface distress (SDI), Structural adequacy (SAI), Pavement condition (PCI),
Roughness (IRI) and Pavement quality (PQI))
Safety Fatality/serious casualty crashes per vehicle kilometre travelled
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 15

16. Rail – Freight and Commuter
Outcomes area Performance indicator (Freight Rail)
Reliability Actual travel speed
Reliability Measure of travel delays incurred (minutes per tonne transported)
Stability Track Quality Index
Resilience Dwell time (as a percentage of scheduled intermodal transit time)
Source: Arup and the CIE
Outcomes area Performance indicator (Commuter Rail)
Reliability
Percentage of timetabled services that actually run — ideally, could use
percentage of scheduled kilometres operated
Reliability
Trains on time as percentage of scheduled trains (peak and off-peak) —
ideally, could use passenger hours lost due to delay
Reliability Average train speed (not currently reported publicly)
Safety Fatalities and serious personal injuries per million km travelled
Resilience Train loading — ideally, could use passenger hours spent standing
Source: Arup and the CIE
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 16

17. Overall picture and gaps
Safety Reliability Stability Resilience
Water Incidences of non-compliant
drinking water quality per 1 000
properties
Unplanned interruptions per 1 000
properties
Average duration of unplanned
interruptions
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 17
Indicator on water security — not
currently publicly reported
Energy Frequency of supply interruptions
(SAIFI)
Duration of unplanned supply
interruptions (SAIDI)
Indicator based on aggregate score
from frequency of voltage
fluctuations, waveform distortions
and voltage unbalances
Communications Fixed line – Percentage of Customer
Service Guarantee (CSG) fault free
during the month
Internet – Percentage of Distribution
Areas in different broadband quality
profiles.
Internet – Indicator on internet
stability e.g. jitter or package loss
(see Box 1) – not currently publicly
reported
Internet – Indicator on average
speeds and peak vs off-peak speeds
– not currently publicly reported;
ideally move to measure of degraded
minutes
Roads Fatality/serious casualty crashes
per vehicle kilometre travelled
Variability of travel times (for a
given time of day)
Congestion indicator (delay
compared to free flow traffic)
Travel comfort indicator based on
Ride Comfort, Surface distress ,
Structural adequacy, Pavement
condition , Roughness and
Pavement quality
Rail (Freight) Fatalities and serious personal
injuries per million kilometres
travelled
Actual travel speed
Travel delays incurred (minutes per
tonne transported)
Track Quality Index Dwell time (as percentage of
scheduled intermodal transit time)
Rail (Commuter) Fatalities and serious personal
injuries per million kilometres
travelled
Percentage of timetabled services that
actually run — % of scheduled
kilometres operated?
Trains on time as percentage of
scheduled trains (peak and off-peak)
— ideally, could use passenger hours
lost due to delay
Average train speed (not currently
reported publicly)
Train loading — ideally, could use
passenger hours spent standing

18. Actual performance against indicators?
Safety Reliability Stability Resilience
Water Reported at State level National Water
Commission National
Performance Report
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 18
NO INDICATOR? INDICATOR PROPOSED
BUT NO DATA?
Energy NO INDICATOR? Network Service Provider
Performance Reports
Network Service
Provider reports
NO INDICATOR?
(Capacity v peak demand?)
Communications NO INDICATOR? ACMA Communications
Report
Dept of Communications
Broadband Availability and
Quality Report
Dept of Communications
Broadband Availability
and Quality Report
INDICATOR PROPOSED
BUT NO DATA?
Roads Reported at State level Reported at State level Austroads reports
Roughness Index
NO INDICATOR?
(Impact of loss of key link?)
Rail (Freight) Reported in aggregate
across freight and commuter
ARA and BITRE report
average speed by major
corridor
TrainLine reports, but
variable basis
ARA and BITRE report
dwell time by major
corridor
Rail (Commuter) Reported in aggregate
across freight and
commuter
States report % actual
running for Metro areas
only
States report on-time
running for Metro areas, but
basis is variable
NO INDICATOR? INDICATOR PROPOSED
BUT NO DATA?

19. Valuing performance and prioritising
Performance
Indicators
(this study)
Benchmarks
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 19
Cost of
underperformance
(“willingness to pay”)
Prioritisation
Actual
performance
(by jurisdiction
and sector)
Shortfalls
(needs &
opportunities)

20. Visualisation Tools
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 20

21. Next Steps
What now? Why?
Correlation
Identify existing data at ‘network segment’ level
across jurisdictions & sectors
Consultation
For shared commitment, agreed optimum set of
indicators, and access to data
Cost of under-performance Monetary valuation across sectors
Visualisation
Of relative performance at sufficiently granular
level
Prioritisation framework
To address relative under-performance where most
valued by end users
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 21

22. For further information contact……..
Dr Richard Sharp
Principal
Arup Pty Ltd
Bus: +61 2 9320 9575
Mobile: +61 414 385 541
E-mail: richard.sharp@arup.com
© 2014 Arup and The CIE 22
Phil Manners
Director
The Centre for International Economics
Bus: +61 2 9250 0800
Mobile: +61 439 482 728
E-mail: pmanners@thecie.com.au