Access to Rail in Urban Areas: Examination of the Number of Stations

Abstract

This paper describes how a key factor in railway use is the number and location of stations and their catchment areas. Opening new stations to reduce access/egress distance to and from the station, is often seen as one of the main ways to increase rail use. However, this strategy is very costly and might be counterproductive as some existing rail travelers could be adversely affected. There are particular challenges in the decision-making process involved in opening new stations in urban areas that are already being well served. A major consideration in deciding whether to build a new station in this situation is the ability of potential users to access the new facility. The paper shows how there are considerable overlaps in the catchment areas of the stations in Amsterdam. These overlaps may be an indication of an oversupply of railway stations, which, from a network or city perspective, can be inefficient when increasing rail use and improving profitability of rail operations. The authors have seen that while there is a demand across the system in the Amsterdam area, this does not necessarily mean that it is high enough to justify all these stations in operation. There is a case for looking carefully at the different factors affecting the choices of passengers of departure stations and the weight given to each. The factors that seem important are travel time to each station by different modes and the destinations served by each station, or, more generally, the level of service including scheduling. The balance between the access time to stations and travel time by rail between stations should be determined when considering the optimal number of stations. In order to reduce any adverse environmental- or congestion-related impacts of passengers switching modes if a station is closed, polices to improve access to the remaining stations may be needed.