An investigation of the performance of urban rail transit systems on the corridor level: A comparative analysis in the American west

Since the 1980s, significant investments have been made in urban rail transit across the United States, particularly using light rail technology. Most of these light rail systems have been built in Sunbelt cities which no longer had legacy rail systems. As a result, they were constructed using a building blocks approach, being funded corridor by corridor. Most research, however, on urban rail performance has taken place at the system-wide level, leaving a significant gap at the level of the transit corridor. This research examined nineteen urban rail corridors in Denver, Salt Lake City, and Portland. A performance score was constructed for each corridor based upon ridership per mile, ridership growth, capital costs, and the cost of ongoing operations. These scores were then compared with the geographic profile of each corridor studied. Corridors in each city ranked high and low, with no city emerging as a clear frontrunner. More centrally-located corridors in each city registered the highest performance scores, while longer corridors in more peripheral locations had lower performance scores. Headways, population density, job density, walkability, and percentage renter occupied housing units were found to have a statistically significant relationship with high corridor performance, largely in line with previous studies, though median income, bus connections, and park and ride spaces were not found to increase performance in this study.     

基于空间成本分配的北京城市轨道交通票价方案选择评价

成本的空间分配是公共交通公平的重要内容,受不同票价方案影响。为了比较不同票价方案下的空间成本分配差异,运用可达性方法,采用北京地铁及其计程票制数据在城市轨道交通站点间票价的基础上计算区域站均票价,分析不同票价方案下北京区县空间成本分布格局差异,给出区县票价方案择优结果,并对2014年北京城市轨道交通票价听证会选择的票价方案进行评价。结果显示,北京各区县并不适合一种票价方案,各区域有最佳的票价方案选择,选择一种票价方案会导致区域间不公平,为城市轨道交通票价调整政策提供一定的参考。     

市域轨道交通线路合理经济长度研究

在理论分析的基础上,从经济角度出发研究市域轨道交通合理的经济长度。以乘客旅行次数需求密度函数为基础,建立市域轨道交通线路长度效益函数和成本函数,其中效益函数包括旅客时间节省效益函数和票价收入效益函数;成本函数包括建设成本函数和运营成本函数,效益函数和成本函数相加即为市域轨道交通社会效益最大化的目标函数。通过建立社会效益函数的非线性函数,建立模型求解,得出合理的市域轨道交通经济长度。     

Bergen light rail – Effects on travel behaviour

Bergen is the second most populous city in Norway (280,000 inhabitants) and is situated along the west coast of the country. In 2010, the city reintroduced tram service with the opening of a new light rail line, after a gap of 45 years. This study documents the increase in public transit use in Bergen, both in terms of volume and market share, since the line was opened. Furthermore, it explores the effects of light rail transit on travel behaviour using Bergen as a case city. These goals are accomplished by combining and analysing data from different sources, including five travel surveys, and other data concerning building stock, population, business activity, commuting and traffic counts. The study identifies four potential driving forces for changes in travel behaviour: (1) the introduction of the light rail; (2) a new high-frequency bus network; (3) increased rates in the toll cordon system; and (4) changes in the urban structure. The study concluded that the introduction of light rail was the main driving force behind the growth in public transit use. The study also highlighted that transit use was highest in areas served by the light rail. The effects of the light rail investments are reinforced by an optimal location of the line with respect to potential users.     

Optimal extension of rail transit lines

A bilevel model for optimizing the extension of a rail transit line over a planning horizon is presented. In the upper level planning problem, planners make decisions regarding construction and investment in each period with the objective of net present worth maximization. In the lower level operational program, transit operators maximize the social welfare by setting the fare, headway, and vehicle size subject to the train capacity constraint. After the exploration of the model's structure, a tighter reformulated program is proposed and solved as a dynamic program. Numerical studies demonstrate that even without a budget limit phased development can be preferable to a one-time extension.     

Rail-transit-induced gentrification and the affordability paradox of TOD

Numerous studies have shown that rail transit has a positive effect on raising property values and tax revenues. Such an effect is widely viewed as an economic benefit for property owners and is key to justifying the high cost of building rail transit infrastructure. In recent years, however, concerns have been raised about rail transit acting as a gentrification trigger and causing the affordability paradox. In this study, I evaluate whether rail transit in suburban Portland caused neighborhood gentrification and reduced home affordability through a longitudinal quasi-experimental design. I use the propensity score matching method to identify control neighborhoods for rail-transit-served neighborhoods. I then make pretest-posttest comparisons between rail-transit-served neighborhoods and their control neighborhoods at multiple observation points. In general, I did not find consistent evidence for rail-transit-induced gentrification in suburban Portland. I did not find evidence that rail transit reduced home affordability for tenants and home owners in rail transit-served neighborhoods either. I observed more changes in the neighborhoods served by the Eastside line (the oldest rail transit line in Portland) than their control neighborhoods in the past three decades: socially, they attracted older and less-educated population; physically, they experienced densification and faster increases of the share of rental units in their housing stock. Rail transit was more likely to be installed along low-income neighborhoods in suburban Portland, confirming the necessity of constructing appropriate control neighborhoods while evaluating the neighborhood and social effects of rail transit.     

市域铁路列车运行组织探讨

近年来,我国现有的城市轨道交通系统逐渐难以满足城区与市郊之间的出行需求,市域铁路成为城市群轨道交通发展的新方向,但我国尚缺乏成熟的市域铁路不同等级列车运行组织模式。在分析国内外市域铁路运行组织及不同等级列车开行现状基础上,提出市域铁路开行不同等级列车的运输组织优化方案,优化市域铁路列车等级设置原则、开行方案、换乘模式,以北京城市副中心线(良乡—乔庄东)为例,提出副中心线运行组织优化建议,为实现都市圈城市轨道交通一体化,促进中心城市与周边城市协调发展提供支撑。     

How rural is too rural for transit? Optimal transit subsidies and supply in rural areas

The optimal supply of rail and bus in low density areas is studied by calibrating a demand and supply model with three modes (car, bus and rail) to an existing low density corridor. Varying the length of the network, the frequencies and the size of the populations, allows to study the trade-off between the consumer surplus losses of the public transport users and the transit operation and maintenance costs savings. We find that for an existing rail network, the optimization of frequency is the prime source of welfare gains. The rail network is marginally beneficial in the sense that keeping the network is welfare improving as long as there is no major repair or replacement investment needed. When population in the smaller towns decreases strongly, it becomes welfare improving to close the existing rail network but a bus service remains beneficial for at least part of the network.     

How does the propensity of living near rail transit moderate the influence of rail transit on transit trip frequency in Xi'an?

Many cities have made massive investments on rail systems to substitute transit for driving. Some studies have considered the confounding effect of attitudes in the connections between rail transit and travel behavior. However, they often focused on the average effect of rail transit and assumed that individuals' responses to transit improvements do not vary by their tastes. Using the 2014 data from Xi'an in China, this study explores the interaction effect between metro transit (heavy rail) and the propensity (i.e., predicted probability) of living in neighborhoods with metro transit on transit use. The propensity is positively associated with commute by metro transit and bus. Further, individuals with a strong propensity use transit equivalently no matter whether they live near metro transit, but metro transit tends to promote transit commute for those with a weak propensity of living near metro transit. Overall, building a rail line helps enhance transit ridership. Planners should also consider the variation in responses by individuals with different tastes when using policies to shape urban travel.     

Public bicycle as a feeder mode to rail transit in China: The role of gender,age, income,trip purpose,and bicycle theft experience

A marriage between public bicycle and rail transit presents new opportunities for sustainable transportation in Chinese cities. To examine determinants of public bicycle usage for rail transit access, an intercept survey of feeder mode choice among rail transit users was conducted near rail stations in Nanjing, China. Mode choice models were estimated with five feeder mode alternatives, including car, bus, walk, private bike, and public bike. By differentiating between public and private bicycle modes in the mode choice models, the study reveals the effects of personal demographics, trip characteristics, and station environments on public bicycle usage for rail transit access. Results show that female, older, and low-income rail commuters are less likely to use public bicycle to access rail transit. Rail commuters with bicycle theft experience and making school- or work-related trips are more likely to use public bicycle to access rail transit. Land use variables are largely insignificant in this study except that density shows a positive relationship with walking to rail transit. The results on demographic differences raise equity concerns when it comes to investing in public bicycle systems. Policy implications are discussed for Chinese cities to equitably boost public bicycle integration with rail transit.     

Optimal allocation of protective resources in urban rail transit networks against intentional attacks

This paper advances the field of network interdiction analysis by introducing an application to the urban rail transit network, deploying protective resources against intentional attacks. The resource allocation problem for urban rail transit systems is considered as a game between two players, the attacker interdicting certain rail stations to generate greatest disruption impact and the system defender fortifying the network to maximize the system’s robustness to external interdictions. This paper introduces a game-theoretic approach for enhancing urban transit networks’ robustness to intentional disruptions via optimally allocating protection resources. A tri-level defender–attacker–user game-theoretic model is developed to allocate protective resources among rail stations in the rail transit network. This paper is distinguished with previous studies in that more sophisticated interdiction behaviors by the attacker, such as coordinated attack on multiple locations and various attacking intensities, are specifically considered. Besides, a more complex multi-commodity network flow model is employed to model the commuter travel pattern in the degraded rail network after interdiction. An effective nested variable neighborhood search method is devised to obtain the solution to the game in an efficient manner. A case study based on the Singapore rail transit system and actual travel demand data is finally carried out to assess the protective resources’ effectiveness against intentional attacks.     

Spatially varying impacts of built environment factors on rail transit ridership at station level: A case study in Guangzhou,China

Understanding the relationship between the rail transit ridership and the built environment is crucial to promoting transit-oriented development and sustainable urban growth. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) models have previously been employed to reveal the spatial differences in such relationships at the station level. However, few studies characterized the built environment at a fine scale and associated them with rail transit usage. Moreover, none of the existing studies attempted to categorize the stations for policy-making considering varying impacts of the built environment. In this study, taking Guangzhou as an example, we integrated multi-source spatial big data, such as high spatial resolution remote sensing images, points of interest (POIs), social media and building footprint data to precisely quantify the characteristics of the built environment. This was combined with a GWR model to understand how the impacts of the fine-scale built environment factors on the rail transit ridership vary across the study region. The k-means clustering method was employed to identify distinct station groups based on the coefficients of the GWR model at the local stations. Policy zoning was proposed based on the results and differentiated planning guidance was suggested for different zones. These recommendations are expected to help increase rail transit usage, inform rail transit planning (to relieve the traffic burden on currently crowed lines), and re-allocate industrial and living facilities to reduce the commute for the residents. The policy and planning implications are crucial for the coordinated development of the rail transit system and land use.     

Rarely enjoyed? A count data analysis of ridership in Germany's public transport

Focusing on adult members of German households, this paper investigates the determinants of public transit ridership with the aim of quantifying the effects of fuel prices, fares, person-level attributes, and characteristics of the transit system on transport counts over a five-day week. The reliance on individual data raises several conceptual and empirical issues, the most fundamental of which is the large proportion of zero values in transit counts. To accommodate this feature of the data, we employ modeling procedures referred to as zero-inflated models (ZIMs), which order observations into two latent regimes defined by whether the individual never uses public transport. Our estimates reveal fuel prices to have a positive and substantial influence on transit ridership, though there is no evidence for a statistically significant impact of the fare.     

日本铁路“东京都市圈通勤五方面作战”转型服务启示研究

城市化进程中需要解决的一个关键问题,就是为特大或超大城市所形成的都市圈构建轨道通勤体系,不仅城市自身需要加快建设城市轨道交通和市郊铁路,以国家铁路为主体的大铁路转型都市区通勤服务也不可或缺,这对特大超大城市和国铁系统双方都是艰巨挑战,同时也是重要发展契机。日本国铁从1960年代后期开始,实施了以大力强化干线通道、提高通勤能力、缓解乘车拥挤为目标的"东京都市圈通勤五方面作战"取得显著成效,同时推动诸多民营铁路共同加快东京都市圈通勤系统建设,这些研究为形成都市圈"四网融合"的轨道交通网络提供重要借鉴。     

一体化发展策略下的轨道交通枢纽建设

轨道交通的枢纽建设在实现城市交通发展一体化中起着至关重要的作用。在总结上海轨道交通多个枢纽建设和运营经验的基础上，提出在一体化发展策略下建设轨道交通枢纽的创新理念，包括“由多线集中换乘到分散换乘”的网络规划理念、由“零距离换乘”到“以时间换空间”的运营安全理念、注重客流组织“单循环”流线的换乘效率理念、实现立体化交通组织的“人车分流”理念、注重细节的“以人为本”理念以及车站周边空间的一体化开发理念，最后从规划、设计、运营、服务、开发五个层面提出轨道交通枢纽建设的具体要求，为未来轨道交通枢纽的规划和建设提供参考。     

Examining circuity of urban transit networks from an equity perspective

Circuity of transit networks, defined as the ratio of network to Euclidean distance traveled from origin to destination stop, has been known to influence travel behavior. In addition to the longer time spent in travel, for networks where fare is based on distance traveled, higher circuity also means higher fare for the same Euclidean distance. This makes circuity relevant from an equity perspective. Using a case study of the urban transit network of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, this study explores the role of transit circuity on the disparity in distance traveled by travelers' income profile and its implications on travel times and costs for networks with distance-based fares. The analysis is based on travel patterns from smart card data for bus, tram, and metro modes, combined with neighborhood level income data. Results reveal that in Amsterdam, the higher the share of high income people living in proximity to a transit stop, the lower the circuity of journeys from the stop, when controlled for the Euclidean distance covered and spatial auto-correlation. The uneven distribution of circuity exacerbates the disparity in distance traveled, and hence fare paid between the income groups. However, the travel time per Euclidean distance favors the low income group, possibly due to the circuitous routes serving these areas being compensated by higher travel speeds. This study highlights the role of transit network design in determining its equity outcomes and emphasizes the importance of considering equity during route and fare planning. The process followed can be adapted to examine equity for other urban networks.     

Accessibility and proximity effects of bus rapid transit on housing prices: Heterogeneity across price quantiles and space

Bus rapid transit (BRT) systems have mushroomed worldwide in the last few decades. An enriched understanding of BRT capitalization effects is essential. Although the BRT accessibility effect on housing prices has been extensively explored, the effect of proximity to the BRT corridor (which may be related to unattractive landscape and noise pollution) has been little scrutinized. More importantly, whether and how the two effects vary across price levels and space have yet to be sufficiently studied. To this end, we estimate the effect of BRT accessibility and proximity on housing prices by applying a battery of econometric methods (including hedonic pricing models, spatial regression models, quantile regression models, and a geographically weighted regression model) to 5185 observations in the housing market in Xiamen Island, China. The results of this study are: (1) BRT accessibility premiums and proximity penalties simultaneously exist in the housing market; (2) buyers of high-priced housing have a greater willingness to pay for avoiding the nuisances attributed to proximity to the BRT corridor; (3) the effect of BRT on housing prices is spatially heterogeneous; (4) the BRT accessibility effect is larger in suburban areas than in urban areas; and (5) housing prices are more predictable near the city centers than outside the area, which may be because a greater proportion of the price of a house near the city centers is derived from the location (rather than the building structure). Finally, policy implications (e.g., building acoustic barriers and planting vegetation along the BRT corridor and improving the transit service in suburban areas) are discussed.     

城际铁路与城市轨道交通售检票互联互通模式研究

为更好的满足国家对现代化城市群发展的要求,提高乘客在城市群内铁路和地铁间换乘的便捷程度,应该加快实现城际铁路和城市轨道交通售检票系统之间的互联互通。基于旅客和管理主体对售检票系统联通的便利需求,提出实名制实体/虚拟一卡通、无碍换乘的实名制实体/虚拟一卡通、二维码互换、一码通、一证通、刷脸通6种方式的互联互通便利模式适应性比较分析,采用符合现阶段铁路和城轨售检票模式的互联互通解决方案。     

Traveler satisfaction in rapid rail systems: The case of Istanbul metro

Multifaceted characteristics of urban travel have an impact on the passengers' overall satisfaction with the transport system. In this study, we investigate the interrelationships among traveler satisfaction, travel and traveler characteristics, and service performance in a multimodal network that comprises of a trunk line and its feeder lines. We analyze the factors influencing the choices of access to rail transit stations and the satisfaction of transit travelers with the rapid rail transit systems. We quantitatively study these relationships and demonstrate the complexity of evaluating transit service performance. Since the interrelationships among variables affecting this system are mainly stochastic, we analyze the satisfaction with transit system problem using a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN), which helps capture the causality among variables with inherent uncertainty. Using the case of Istanbul, we employ the BBN as a decision support tool for policy-makers to analyze the rapid rail transit services and determine policies for improving the quality and the level of service to increase the satisfaction with transit system. In the case study, satisfaction with accessibility and access mode variables are found to be more effective variables than total travel time for travel time satisfaction, confirming the significant role of access in multimodal travels.     

城市轨道交通车站旅客换乘效率评价模型研究

通过分析城市轨道交通车站换乘系统,从快速性、便捷性、舒适性和安全性方面构建城市轨道交通车站旅客换乘效率评价指标体系。运用灰色系统理论,建立基于综合灰色关联加权法的城市轨道交通车站换乘效率评价模型。以重庆轻轨2号线车站为例,计算了5个车站的换乘效率综合评价值并进行排序,认为该评价模型具有一定的可操作性和实用性。