Definition of accessibility for railway stations and its impact on railway passenger demand

Abstract

This paper addresses the notion of accessibility of railway stations and its relation to the number of passengers using these stations. It first gives a discussion on the notion of accessibility and it presents the special factors and the issues involved in its definition for (intercity) railway stations. Of the large number of possible definitions of an Accessibility Index, it goes on to choose the form that statistically explains better the changes in the number of passengers using a station. The methodology followed in order to do this, can be used as a guideline for determining the type of index that would best explain the data in other similar situations. Having selected an Accessibility Index for railway stations, a simple regression model has been made, that connects this accessibility index to the number of passengers using the station. The type of this relation, its statistical characteristics, and its sensitivity are then discussed and some useful overall conclusion reached. The data used and a first application of the results, which is also briefly described in the paper refer to the railway network of Greece.