New technologies redefining the future of Melbourne’s transport network

When we think about the clichés that define Melbourne, the mind jumps to ‘four seasons in one day’, wearing black and double-shot almond lattes. However, Melbourne has become known for a less glamorous stereotype in recent years – crippling traffic congestion.

Congestion impacts the quality of life by creating frustration and preventing commuters from spending time doing the things they love with people they love. It affects business productivity by delaying critical deliveries, costing both time and money. It also impacts the environment, with stop-start driving and excessive air travel acting as significant contributors to carbon emissions.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, with the restrictions on movement, the spotlight shifted for some time from traffic congestion to more pressing issues; but now, as our cities are opening and getting back to normalcy, the congestion challenge is back on the road, slowing us down like before. Before the pandemic, road traffic in Melbourne’s inner-city suburbs was particularly bad, especially during the school run.

In January 2019, Intelematics’ data found that across Melbourne, the afternoon peak period started at 3 pm, peaked at 5 pm and didn’t drop until around 7 pm. A four-hour peak period presents a significant challenge for commuters.
In addition, because Australia’s major cities are located far apart, there is significant daily domestic air travel occurring. According to a productivity report on

Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport released in 2018, domestic passenger numbers increased by 33.5 per cent – from 19.4 million in 2007-08 to 25.8 million passengers in 2018, reflecting an average growth of 2.9 per cent per year.

However, the future of transport is looking bright. There are two emerging transport technologies in particular that I believe will help to permanently alleviate Melbourne’s congestion challenge, particularly as it seems to be a front-runner on the post-pandemic daily woes list.

Hyperloop technology is a form of transport currently in development by many governments and private companies around the globe. The technology could see passengers travelling close to 1,200 kilometres an hour in floating pods that race along inside low-pressure tubes, either above or below ground.

Hyperloops can travel as fast as a jet but without all the drawbacks of air travel. Firstly, they will help travellers skip all the rigmarole of airports. No more checking in hours ahead of your flight, checking in baggage, going through security or lengthy boarding and disembarking processes. The Hyperloop experience is similar to train travel – turn up at the station a few minutes before scheduled departure, hop on straight away, and once at your destination, you depart on time too.

Furthermore, the location of Hyperloop stations enhances their appeal. When we think about airports, they’re required to be located outside cities, often more than 45 minutes from Central Business Districts, due to their sheer size and the need for clear airspace to land. Where Hyperloops are concerned, the stations are more likely to be conveniently located in the city centre, and there’s no stuffing around at the station—cutting the journey time to half.

Hyperloops also bring significant environmental benefits. Hyperloops carry a relatively small carbon footprint, particularly when compared with air travel, or even car travel, as it uses very little energy to propel pods through the tube. Also, because they run at ground-level, Hyperloops can be directly powered by renewable energy, in the form of solar or wind energy, close to the source.

There are already signs around the globe that Hyperloop travel is just around the corner. After the concept was first mentioned publicly in 2012 by Elon Musk, there has been an arm’s race of sorts around the world to get the first viable version of the technology up and running. Hyperloop Dubai is looking the most promising right now. Also, the world-first technology being created by Virgin Hyperloop One announced in November 2020 that it had successfully conducted a test of its ultra-fast transportation system with human passengers making transportation history.

Melbourne is a prime candidate for Hyperloop technology, with our nearest major city located more than 650km away. Australia has been talking of adopting high-speed rail, however, much of this conversation has centred around bullet train technology. Hyperloop is a far more advanced solution than bullet trains, and we should be looking to leapfrog to the ultimate solution. However, there is work to be done before Australia is ready to implement this futuristic solution. It primarily needs government support; it also requires close collaboration between the private and public sectors to get it off the ground. Funding and investment need to come from both government and business.

On the first examination, Hyperloop technology may not seem like a wise investment for Australia, as our lower population would drive smaller returns. However, both government and business need to understand that the benefit doesn’t just come from improving the travel experience for Australian commuters, it also comes from showcasing Australia’s capability to bring about innovative technological advancement to the world.

The concept of ‘swarming’ isn’t new, but its potential application to our transport system is. In nature, swarming refers to collective behaviour exhibited by entities, traditionally animals, of similar size that aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or moving en masse in one direction. In the animal kingdom, we see this behaviour amongst insects, birds and fish. Now we are starting to see this concept applied to robotics, through technology, to benefit society.
The way that swarming robotics works is that there is no one leader. Instead, many robots work collectively and collaboratively to respond to their environment and the actions of those around them. They are programmed to react to circumstances as they unfold, rather than programmed to follow a pre-determined path or a pre-determined sequence of actions.

One of the benefits of this is that many robots can be controlled at once – macro commands can be given, while the individual robots respond to each other and their environment to work out the rest. Swarming robots respond to both explicit and implicit messages. For example, if this technology is applied to transport and autonomous vehicles, an explicit message may come when vehicle A, which is travelling one lane to the left of vehicle B, indicates that it is going to merge right. As a result, vehicle B picks up the explicit message (the flashing indicator signal) and also moves one lane to its right.

Implicit messages may come when a vehicle interprets and processes the behaviours of vehicles in its immediate surroundings and in distant surroundings to gauge the ripple effect of the multiple actions in its environment and respond accordingly. An example of this may be when a vehicle is travelling in the far-right lane and registers that most of the ‘swarm’ is shifting to the right. However, by assessing its environment, it understands that it is in the far-right lane and has no room to move, so it responds differently, for example, by slowing down or speeding up. Swarming robotics technology is shaping up to be a key enabler of autonomous vehicle networks. The implementation of swarming robotics technology would help prepare Melbourne’s transport network for a more autonomous future, which would help to improve our city’s traffic flow.

There are also clear safety benefits to the widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles. In 2020, 211 lives were lost on Victorian roads, with many of those deaths resulting from human error. The introduction of autonomous vehicles is predicted to reduce death and serious injury caused by road accidents significantly. The network would operate in an incredibly coordinated and intuitive way, with fewer gridlocks and fewer accidents.

In 2020, Australia ranked 15th in KPMG’s Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index. While Australia scored well on connectivity infrastructure, we received lower ratings on technology and innovation. Greater investment in swarming robotics technology is one way we could look to improve our technology and innovation ratings.

Currently, swarming robotics technology for vehicles is being tested in a lab setting. But even if it’s proven successful in the lab, it will meet additional complications when faced with real-world requirements. We are looking at about a decade of further development before the technology is mature enough, but it’s already proving a robust use case for an autonomous future.

However, before we get to that point, there’s more that we need to work through for this technology to be viable for regular use. Regulation, in particular, will be critical – you can’t have a robot that no one’s responsible for; someone has to be accountable for its actions. Human oversight will remain a crucial part of successfully launching and adapting this technology.

If we think about the Melbourne road network, there are also different models for rolling out the technology that would need to be worked through. For example, would it be a centralised model where the swarm is operated from one central location and by one central body? Or would it be a decentralised model where the swarm is operated by multiple parties in ‘zones’?

To bring the technology to life, we need to see continued investment in research and development, more work done on the regulatory side and begin to build a bank of real-world case examples. A good place to start could be introducing swarming robotics into mines, which provides an isolated environment to refine the technology and build it out.

It’s going to be an exciting decade ahead for Melbourne’s transport network, with the emergence of technologies that no one would’ve thought possible even a decade ago. I, for one, can’t wait to see how it unfolds.