Managing rail transit peak-hour congestion with step fare schemes

Abstract

In this paper, we propose step fare schemes for a rail transit line connecting a residential district with a central business district (CBD). The proposed fare schemes aim to reduce the total system cost (TSC) while ensuring revenue-neutrality for the rail operator. The user equilibrium (UE) principle in terms of generalized trip cost is adopted to formulate commuters’ departure time choice problems with late arrival under the proposed fare schemes. The equilibrium flow patterns and trip costs are analytically derived. It is found that passengers’ departure times present more even distribution under the schemes with more fare steps, resulting in a lower TSC. Besides, the optimal train schedule and the optimal number and capacity of trains are analyzed. Finally, numerical examples are provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed transit fare schemes.