Assessment of the Impact of Intercity Bus Station Relocation on Passenger Flows in Urban Public Transport

Abstract

Problem. The analysis of existing studies on transport hub operation in a city as well as on the methods for modelling the transport demand they generate showed that there are no specific recommendations for assessing the impact of the intercity bus station location on the trip patterns in urban transport system. This caused the need to search for a tool suitable to assess the influence of intercity bus station relocation on passenger service and passenger flows in the urban transport system. This paper shows the results of addressing this issue respective to urban public transport operation. Goal. The goal of the paper is to model the passenger flows to and from intercity bus stations considered transport anchors in urban public transport system as well as estimate the impact of station relocation on passenger flows and quality of service. Methodology. To achieve the stated goal, a survey of intercity passengers at the bus stations in the city of Rivne was made. This allowed for collecting the distances of the trips to and from existing bus stations and fitting the theoretical distribution to describe them. This distribution was used as the deterrence function during trip matrix calculation, which was required for the development of the public transport model. The model made it possible to quantify the potential impact of the Bus Station “Rivne” relocation on the urban transport system. Results. The considered bus station relocation can cause a decrease in the quality of service for passengers travelling to and from the station by public transport due to a probable significant increase in the average travel time and distance, the number of transfers, the passenger hours spent on travelling, and the passenger-kilometres covered to ensure the trips under study. Originality For the first time, the quantitative estimation of the impact of bus station relocation based on the regularities in the lengths of the trips to and from the stations was obtained. Practical value. The obtained trip length distribution can be used to calculate the origin-destination matrix, develop the public transport model, and quantify the probable consequences of the transport hub relocation.