Model Description

Zenith was established by Veitch Lister Consulting to aid the planning of multi-modal infrastructure and operational decision-making throughout Australia.  Development of the model commenced in 1986 and has continued ever since.  It is now widely regarded both in Australia and internationally as representing the cutting edge of this technology.

The model is now readily available in:

  • Melbourne (incorporating associated regional cities);
  • Sydney;
  • South East Queensland
  • Adelaide; and
  • Perth,

and has also been used in a number of regional centres (Ballarat, Bendigo and Townsville for example).

The model is now embedded in the OmniTRANS Transport Planning Software because of the enhanced ability of OmniTRANS to present model outputs in formats that are suitable for decision-making at all levels (technical, management and political).

The Zenith model has the following basic components:

  • road and rail infrastructure networks (including system capacities and operating speeds);
  • dedicated tram and bus right-of-ways;
  • transit service networks (routes), service frequency and fare details;
  • details of the various land uses in discrete areas of the city – called travel zones;
  • dedicated pedestrian routes/facilities;
  • travel patterns (expressed as numbers of trips made between origin and destination travel zone pairs by travel mode and journey purpose);
  • details of parking charges, tolls and vehicle operating costs (including petrol price);
  • model calibration parameters derived from household travel surveys that require survey participants to submit travel diaries;
  • algorithms to interrogate the model’s forecasts and produce a wide range of graphical outputs and transport system performance indicators.

The model has been employed by the public and private sectors to analyse and evaluate the major road and public transport infrastructure projects and policy alternatives in major cities throughout Australia.

Applications of the model typically involve:

  • model establishment and validation to demonstrate the model is fit for purpose (a typical example of the results of this process are demonstrated in the attached report prepared as a contribution to the Victorian Transport Plan);
  • development and coding of the options to be examined; and
  • extraction of the model results in the forms required by decision-makers.

Model outputs are frequently customized to meet the particular needs of individual clients and with the new OmniTRANS interface, can be presented in powerful graphical forms.