JaneHayse

Hello! I feel like I am on the Survivor Reality TV show. These last few days have been quite rough. We left Melbourne Wednesday night and took a 2 hour flight to Brisbane, getting in around 10 pm. Awoke to a beautiful view. Brisbane's weather was incredibly wonderful. We met with the Queensland Transport Department all day and then flew out last night to Wellington. It was a three hour flight and two hour time difference. I am now 16 hours ahead of you all. Awoke to a cold Wellington day - low of 4C and a high of 12C. We had a good meeting with the New Zealand Transport Agency. Seeing alot of similarity between countries in their approach to performance measurement and performance management. Bottom line - everyone is struggling with the same challenges ... read more

Hi everyone, I have hit the wall. We had a 6 hour meeting on Sunday that wiped us all out. Then all day Monday with the RTA and NSW government followed by a flight to Melbourne tonight. The stuff that we heard about in Sydney was unbelievable. I can't wait to share with all of you. We have two days here in Melbourne before going to Brisbane Wed. night. I will post photos tomorrow night.... read more

My mind is jello. We had a very good and long day with the Ministry for Transport. Like the Swedes, Climate Change and Economic Growth permeate everything they do. I had to go way back in my mind to remember my Parliamentary form of government from college political science classes. It is very different from our system. Gas is $3.50 a liter here and 50% is taxes. The Treasury Deprtment ccan change the tax based on inflation without getting any approval from Parliament. We learned alot of detail today. Bottom line... negotiating agreements seems to be the modus operandi. I am further led to believe that we at ARC are really ahead of the game and doing great things with our performance based approach. The English have spent ten years doing this and we can learn ... read more

Hi Everyone!! Thanks so much for responding! It is nice to know so many people are reading my blog!! Well today was back to work. Spent the entire day in the hotel conference room with the top officials from the Swedish Road Administration. We learned quite alot. In fact, after I post this, i am going to have to type up notes from the day. It is now after 10 pm and I have had the second four hour dinner. How do the Europeans do this? The restaurant was built in 1651 and we had a great dinner with our Swedish hosts. To all your transportation folks - I just love what we heard today. The Swedes told us that it has taken twenty years to shift the paradigm from a road building administration to a ... read more

I made here with my bags, although the handle was broken off my suitcase when I picked it up. Our plane landed about 11:10 local time. I have had about three hours sleep since yesterday morning. So far, Sweden looks very much like the US in the drive from the airport. Lots of campus looking office builidings off an expressway with a transitline parallel to the highway. Our hotel is right across the bridge from the Old Town. Since we could not check into the hotel when we arrived, we walked through the Old Town. That is where the photos were taken, It has the Royal Palace and lots of shops. Tomorrow (Sunday), I am going to take a boat tour around the islands that make up Stockholm. It is the only sight seeing time I ... read more