Summary
Australia's consultation on reforming its public transport accessibility rules, with a costed proposal for hearing augmentation on vehicles and a qualitative cost assessment for hearing loops at stations and stops.
Key findings
- Proposes that hearing augmentation on buses, trains, trams and ferries meet AS 1428.5 (2021) and cover the whole vehicle, against the 10% of the enclosed area required under the 1992 standard the rules now cite, and puts the monetised compliance costs at A$1.6 million administrative and A$122.6 million substantive (real 2021/22 dollars, discounted at 7% over a 20-year implementation and 15-year appraisal period).
- For stations, stops and other transport premises, states that of the two systems the building rules recognise, magnetic induction and receivers issued by the operator, "The logistics of issuing, collecting and cleaning receivers almost certainly precludes their use in a public transport system", leaving the induction loop.
- Describes induction loops as a mature technology whose "Material costs are low with labour usually being the main expense", with the price varying with the area covered, and notes that operators extending coverage may need a new system rather than an extension, at sites with overhead wires in particular.
- Did not cost the premises reform in its cost-benefit analysis, describing it as a definitional change with no change to assets.
- Says extending hearing augmentation coverage may pose a challenge with associated costs at individual sites, particularly those with overhead wires (p. 98).
Limits
A consultation document: the costs are national estimates for the proposed rules, not prices from projects, and the vehicle figure is not broken down by technology or per vehicle. Its benefit-cost ratio is given only for the whole information and wayfinding theme, not for hearing augmentation alone. The cover gives March 2022; an addendum records amendments on 28 and 31 March 2022.
Read the original
Cited in
- What does each system cost to install and to run over its life?Open
- What works for announcements and ticket counters on buses, trains, stations and airports?Partly answered
Cite this source
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications (Australia). Reforms of the Disability Standards for Accessible Public Transport 2002: Stage 2 Consultation Regulation Impact Statement. Australian Government (copy on the Office of Impact Analysis website). March 2022. https://oia.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/posts/2022/04/Stage%202%20Consultation%20Regulation%20Impact%20Statement.pdf (accessed 9 October 2026).
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