3:00pm - 5:00pm

Delegate registration

5:00pm - 7:00pm

Welcome reception
NTU ADM Building

8:00am

Delegate registration
Education Wing Atrium

9:00am

Opening of conference
Opening Remarks by Professor Lam Khin Yong, Vice President (Research), NTU

9:10am

Welcome
Professor David Hensher International Conference Chair

9:15am

Keynote address
by Guest of Honour Dr Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Communications and Information, Singapore

10:00am

Morning break

10:30am

Operator and Regulator Roundtable
Didier van de Velde (Chair)
Ian Wallis, Andrew Edwards and Jeremy Yap

Andrew Edwards
Bus Contracting Model from the operators viewpoint

Operating in a regulated Bus Contracting Model gives public transport companies the freedom to flourish with high performance and focus on key targets set by the regulatory authority that meet their key criteria for the city, community or country that they are serving. Go-Ahead’s presentation will focus on why they believe Bus Contracting works in Singapore, touching on their many years of experience in regulated markets like TfL in London, what benefits they see for organisations operating in in the BCM and a small comparison of the other models they work in around the UK and world.

Ian Wallis
Negotiated versus Tendered Bus Service Procurement -- the Good, the Bad and the Challenges
This presentation focuses on an ongoing and unresolved issue in the Thredbo conference series -- the relative value for money achievable in procuring urban bus service contracts through negotiation with the incumbent operator versus open competitive tendering.

It presents some new evidence on this issue from the recent regulatory and policy reforms of the urban bus sector in New Zealand – where, in the main metropolitan centres, about half of the bus contracts have been competitively tendered, the other half negotiated with their incumbents.

The presentation reports on the good and the not-so-good results of this NZ ‘mixed’ procurement model. In the light of this experience, and also wider experience internationally, it poses some questions and challenges -- particularly relating to the key ingredients of successful negotiations where authorities are increasingly seeking better value for money.

Jeremy Yap
Innovating Policies and Regulations for an Evolving Transport Ecosystem
With the goal of having a public transport ecosystem that is responsive to commuters’ needs while remaining sustainable for Operators, Singapore’s policies and regulatory framework would have to continually adapt to meet our evolving transport objectives. The presentation would provide a few key examples of what had been done to innovate our policies and regulations so as to allow for greater Government oversight, without compromising the competitive efficiencies of the market. Such are implementing the Bus Contracting Model, operating the new Thomson-East Coast Line on contracting model and restructuring our regulations for new mobility providers (e.g. licensing of Bike-Sharing Operators, new regulatory regime for Private-Hire Cars).

11:45am

Measuring Public Transport Fare Affordability - Methodological Issues and Call for Collaboration
Professor Michael Li

Providing affordable public transport services is a major policy objective for all municipal governments. But there is no consensus on the meaning and measurement of fare affordability. In this talk, I will discuss the pros and cons of several affordability measures and illustrate the challenges with examples. A collaborative research effort is called for so that we can collectively measure and benchmark the affordability for major cities in the world.

12:15pm

Workshop rules
Professor David Hensher International Conference Chair

12:30pm

Lunch

1:45pm

Workshop sessions

Workshop sessions run concurrently and delegates remain with their workshop throughout the conference.

Workshop 1. Models of mainstream public transport provision
Lecture Room 3

Workshop 2. Practical considerations in implementing different institutional regimes
Lecture Room 4

Workshop 3. Emerging business models and implications for the transport ecosystem
Lecture Room 5

Workshop 4. Realising the potential benefits of demand-responsive travel
Lecture Room 6

Workshop 5. How much regulation should disruptive transportation technologies be subject to?
Seminar Room 1

Workshop 6. Better service delivery through modal integration
Seminar Room 2

Workshop 7. Assessing the wider benefits of public transport projects
Seminar Room 3

Workshop 8. Beyond the farebox: sustainable funding of public transport by better understanding service values
Seminar Room 4

3:45pm

Afternoon break

4:15pm

Workshop sessions

6:00pm

Close

9:00am

Workshop sessions

10:30am

Morning break

11:00am

Workshop sessions

12:30pm

Lunch

1:45pm

Workshop sessions

3:15pm

Afternoon break

3:45pm

Workshops sessions

5:00pm

Close

6:45pm - 9:00pm

Dinner Under the Stars
Land Transport Authority’s Hampshire Office

Taste for yourselves why Singapore’s unique hawker culture deserves to be recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO as you embark on a culinary discovery @ LTA with live stations providing a selection of Singapore’s top favourite hawker dishes. Continue your adventure with a visit to LTA’s SG Mobility Gallery, which will be opened beyond usual hours, to take a look at how LTA plans, designs and builds Singapore’s transport system. Have loads of fun with the multi-sensory exhibits using augmented and virtual reality and challenge each other in our interactive activities and games. Finish off by picking up a souvenir or two from our Knackstop which features quirky merchandise celebrating milestones in Singapore’s land transport industry. Proceeds go to the LTA Cares Fund, a charity fund that helps with the transport needs of financially and physically disadvantaged students and working adults.

9:00am

Workshop sessions

10:30am

Morning break

11:00am

Workshop sessions

12:30pm

Lunch

2:00pm

Singapore Bicentennial Experience (Optional social tour)
Join us on this journey back in time to witness key moments in Singapore’s transformation from as far back as 1299 in a multimedia sensory experience.

5:30pm

Pre-Dinner Cocktails

6:30pm

Conference banquet dinner

• Recognition of Tower Transit Award winners
• Announcement of Thredbo 17 hosts

9:00pm

End (back at accommodation around 9:45pm)

9:00am

Plenary
Professor Kara Kockelman University of Texas

Regional operations of shared autonomous vehicles – with and without dynamic ridesharing
Connected and (fully-) automated vehicles (CAVs) are set to disrupt the ways in which we travel. CAVs will affect road safety, congestion levels, vehicle ownership and destination choices, long-distance trip-making frequencies, mode choices, and home and business locations. Shared AVs (SAVs) will offer many people access to such technologies at relatively low cost (e.g., $1 per mile), with empty-vehicle travel on the order of 10 to 15 percent of fleet VMT. If SAVs are smaller and/or electric, and dynamic ride-sharing is enabled and regularly used, emissions and energy demand may fall. If road tolls are thoughtfully applied, using GPS across all congested segments and times of day, total VKT may not rise: instead, travel times - and their unreliability - may fall. If credit-based congestion pricing is used, traveler welfare may rise and transportation systems may ultimately operate near-optimally. This presentation will present research relating to all these topics, to help transport managers think about policies, technologies, and other tools to improve quality of life for all travelers.

9:30am

Presentation
Professor Julian Wright National University of Singapore

The regulation of point-to-point transport services
Taking into account the different matching technologies for point-to-point transport services (street hailing and ride hailing), and the economics of multi-sided platforms like Uber’s, we propose a unified regulatory framework. The approach distinguishes drivers and operators based on the type of matching technology used rather than whether they have traditionally been labelled as “taxis” or not. We argue, regulation around the availability and transparency of metered fares should apply to street hailing. For ride hailing, we argue exclusive clauses that prohibit drivers from driving for rival operators should be banned, while multihoming by drivers and riders should be facilitated.  

10:00am

Morning break

10:30am

Reports from Workshops 1-4
Auditorium

12:30pm

Lunch

1:45pm

Reports from Workshops 5-8
Auditorium

3:45pm

Afternoon break

4:15pm

Michael Beesley Award

Presentation of shortlisted papers
Early career transport professionals

Presentation of award
Associate Professor Wijnand Veeneman (Michael Beesley Award Chair)

5:20pm

Conference close
Dr Leong Wai Yan (Conference Chair) and Professor David Hensher (International Conference Series Chair)

5:30pm

End

9:30am - 12:15pm

Technical tour of Singapore Bus Academy’s Bus Technical Specialist Certification Centre (BTSCC), Ulu Pandan Bus Depot (optional)

The BTSCC supports the training needs of technicians by providing a conducive environment for technical training and certification, with specialised training facilities that use innovative technologies such as augmented reality and tablet devices to provide an interactive learning experience.