Approach Methodology for Comprehensive Assessing the Public Passenger Transport Timetable Performances at a Regional Scale

Vladimír Ľupták,Paweł Droździel,Ondrej Stopka,Iwona Rybicka,Mária Stopková

doi:10.3390/su11133532

Vladimír Ľupták, Paweł Droździel + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133532

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Abstract

The paper is focused on the issue of assessing the quality of transport connectivity on a predesignated transport network in regular public passenger transport at a regional scale. Comprehensively, using the defined key qualitative indicators, it assesses the performance of passenger transport timetables, in both ways of ex ante, as well as ex post. Existing methodologies in a given issue have only dealt with a partial assessment of the transport connectivity quality on specific transport network. However, unlike them, the objective of this manuscript was to propose a new unified methodology to assess the passenger transport timetables in terms of transport connectivity, and subsequently to complexly evaluate the whole predesignated regional transport network from a qualitative point of view. In this paper, the proposed methodology is demonstrated on a particular regional transport network, specifically an existing railway network in the Slovak Republic, whereby the data related to regional passenger transport timetables for a certain day is an input factor. The purpose of this study was to design and verify a draft methodological procedure to assess the quality of transport connectivity on a certain transport network, thus moving towards more effective evaluation of integrated transport systems. Its practical applicability consists in comparison of existing and proposed timetables, which is considered one of the crucial factors in terms of public passenger transport quality.

Highlights

The role of the European Union’s (EU’s) transport system is to provide a high degree of mobility, while increasing its performance in terms of speed, comfort, and safety
Step 1—Selection of a transport network The case study focuses on the ŽSR (Railways of the Slovak Republic) rail network and covers all carriers that provide railway services within this network on a particular day
As for the area of assessing the transport connectivity quality on a transport network, a number of standards, regulations and directives exist. They are implemented in national legislation; the quality of transport connectivity and availability is perceived subjectively by each passenger or potential passenger

Summary

Introduction

The role of the European Union’s (EU’s) transport system is to provide a high degree of mobility, while increasing its performance in terms of speed, comfort, and safety. The availability of destinations and the frequency of connections are the most important criteria in terms of passengers’ interest in public transport [1,2,3]. The transport infrastructure function is to comprehensively serve the state territory or selected geographic agglomeration. Regional differences in the quality of transport network, which has far-reaching consequences in terms of increasing economic and social disparities among individual parts of the country, are apparent [4,5,6,7]. The offered quality of transport network connectivity is considerably related to services provided within transport sector [4]

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