Intercity Passenger Transportation Research Articles

Operational scheduling of intercity passenger transportation company participating in energy and reserve markets

The electric vehicle (EV) is becoming the main mode of intercity passenger transportation. The intercity passenger transportation company (IPTC) is envisioned to participate in the electricity market to maximize the operation profit. Hence, it is necessary to study some strategic operating behaviors of the IPTC, including EV scheduling and bidding, to ensure the efficient operation of intercity passenger transport. This paper develops a decision-making tool based on a bi-level programming model for a merchant price-maker IPTC to determine the most beneficial scheduling and trading actions in the day-ahead market. The upper level of the model considers the mobility characteristics of EVs by a modified time–space network (TSN) to help the IPTC formulate intercity passenger shifts and bidding strategies. In this level, the IPTC maximizes its profit in the day-ahead market through bidding strategies, transportation scheduling, and charging/discharging arrangement at each station. In the lower level of the model, the joint energy and reserve market is cleared with maximum social welfare. The bi-level model can be transformed into an easily solved mixed-integer linear programming problem by applying the strong duality theorem and a binary expansion method to handle the nonlinear constraints of the reformulated single-level problem based on Karush-Kuhn-Tucker theorems. Finally, case studies are carried out on a modified IEEE 39-bus system and a practical 714-bus power system in China. The numerical results indicate that the IPTC tends to schedule more EVs to park in cities directly connected to congested transit lines and increase the number of discharging vehicles, resulting in the growth of the scheduled energy of discharging in these cities and thus higher profits. The different operation strategies of the IPTC are also discussed in the day-ahead market.

Development of a multinomial logit­model to choose a transportation mode for intercity travel

Reducing the share of the use of automobiles in intercity passenger transportation is one of the ways to achieve the goals of sustainable development in transport that could positively affect the environment. The purpose of this work is to determine, based on the analysis of the results of polling conducted in the city of Lviv, Ukraine, trends in the selection of an external transport hub (ETH) by the transportation system users for a subsequent intercity trip. To this end, a multinomial logit model of ETH selection has been constructed, based on calculating the utility of students' choice of a railway and a bus hub. Multi-nominal logit models (MLM) are widely used to simulate the behavior of users, as evidenced by numerous studies. Their correct application requires that a set of factors should be defined that influence making a choice and the MLM coefficients should be calculated, based on studying users' behavior within a specific design area. The factors affecting the choice of a type of an external transport hub are the characteristics of an ETH (the throughput and the number of dispatches in a certain direction) and the duration and cost of a trip. The impact of these factors differs depending on the trip length: we have calculated the MLM coefficients for selecting an ETH type separately for travel up to 100 km in length, from 100 to 200 km, and more than 200 km. In addition, such indicators as the duration of a city trip and the time interval of dispatching were introduced in the model; however, the process of calculating the significance of the logit-model parameters revealed that these indicators did not exert significant influence on the users within the studied group. The result of this study is the defined characteristics of the performed trips with the hub-based distribution. The data obtained would contribute to a better understanding of the behavior of users of this class when they choose the mode of intercity travel and could be used to optimize the functioning of external transport hubs

An overview of current research and developments in urban air mobility – Setting the scene for UAM introduction

Recent technological advances provide the means for potentially realizing urban air mobility (UAM) as a passenger transport mode for intra- and inter-urban transport. However, questions regarding regulations, infrastructure requirements, and economic constraints remain to be answered. Therefore, this review aims at giving an overview on different research areas in the emerging topic of UAM. To this end, findings from several fields within the UAM research community were gathered and are presented here to provide a landscape of relevant questions surrounding the implementation of UAM. This overview considers vehicle-related aspects, such as aircraft requirements and aircraft classification for intra- and inter-city passenger transport, and discusses potential hurdles to their introduction. The exploration of challenges includes questions on certification and policy, as well as challenges in the area of traffic management and ground infrastructure requirements. Besides that, literature on operational concepts, possible market structures and the interaction with existing transport systems will be reviewed. The discussion of hurdles will conclude with a summary of current literature on public acceptance of UAM. An overview of methods for modelling and simulation of UAM will wrap up the prior discussion and provide insights on first modelling results.

The reconfiguration effect of China's high-speed railway on intercity connection ——A study based on media attention index

A high-speed railway (HSR) station in a city can make a significant change to the way a city receives and transmits information, thus increasing its “borrowed size.” How does an intercity passenger transport system shape the pattern of urban connection? To provide an answer to this question, a study is conducted to investigate the impact of the HSR project rolled out across China, which is known as the world's largest railway network, on intercity media attention as constructed from the information of local media coverage. A staggered difference-in-differences (DID) regression approach is taken to find out that the opening of a new HSR station increases the media attention drawn by a city from other cities by 1.88%, and that the direct link between two cities through HSR improves intercity attention by approximately 0.90%. To further explore the underlying mechanism, heterogeneity analysis is conducted to indicate that HSR has augmented the intercity connection network by reinforcing the cooperation between various cities, and this power has diminished with distance.

SIMULATION MODELING OF PARAMETERS OF FUNCTIONING OF RAILWAY PROJECTS

The speed of communication on any route, directly and indirectly through the function of redistribution of traffic volumes, causes an increase in the number of movements, traffic volumes, transport work, in the network of the appropriate type, at the same time the values of the medium system coefficient of passenger capacity use and the number of vehicles may vary both in the direction of the increase and vice versa. The results of the calculations of the basic parameters of the functioning of intercity passenger route systems for various values of the speed of communication on intercity railway routes established the appropriate mathematical model for determining the parameters of this passenger communication. The conducted analysis of simulation methods has determined the possibility of using for the determination of quantitative parameters for changing the basic indicators of the operation of the system of intercity passenger route methods of mathematical and computer simulation. The results of the work determined the basic indicators of the functioning of the system of intercity passenger route transportation. These indicators include: the number of movements in the network; volume of transportation; transfer ratio; transport work; average distance of the route; average distance of the network ride; medium coefficient of passenger capacity use; required number of buses / cars. According to the analysis of the methods and models of calculations of the basic indicators of the functioning of the system of intercity passenger traffic, it was assumed that the change in the quantitative characteristics of the parameters entering into the system or the quantitative characteristics of its elements may lead to a change in the quantitative indicators of the functioning of the system itself or its individual elements. Keywords: transport system, intercity passenger transport route, basic parameters of transportation, efficien-cy, model.

DETERMINATION OF LAWS OF CHANGE OF PARAMETERS OF THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM

It is proved that when changing the parameters of the distribution of passenger traffic between automobile and railway routenet works, the quantitative mean values ofthe average-length of the route and mediumnet work range of the ride change by less than 0,01%, and the transfer ratioremainsun changed. It is determined that changing the speed of the ride is such a factor that does not affect the quantitative values of the number of movements in the network, the transfer ratio, the average distance of the trip. At the same time, the existence of a polynomial dependence of the average coefficient of passenger capacityuse and the number of buses on the speed of route/network rides has been proved. The functions of redistribution of volumes of transportation in relation to any route of different types of transport, with a constant total number of movements, causes an increase in the number of transported passengers, the transport operation of the route network, the average coefficient of passenger capacity, the number of vehicles. The paper examined issues of studying the basis of intercity passenger transport routes. It is established that the system of intercity passenger route transportation is not isolated. This causes the influence of the environment on the quantitative indicators of the parameters of the functioning of these systems, which is due to the possibility of quantitative changes in the parameters entering the system. It was determined that the current state of scientific approaches does not fully take into account the interrelation of elements of the intercity passenger route system when calculating the basic parameters of the functioning of this system. It is proved that the issues of further development of scientific approaches regarding the features of accounting for the mutual influence of the quantitative characteristics of the elements of the system of intercity passenger route traffic is relevant and subject to study. Keywords: transport system, intercity passenger transport route, basic parameters of transportation, efficiency, model.

Prediction of railway switch point failures by artificial intelligence methods

In recent years, railway transport has been preferred intensively in local and intercity freight and passenger transport. For this reason, it is of utmost importance that railway lines are operated in an uninterrupted and safe manner. In order to carry out continuous operation, all systems must continue to operate with maximum availability. In this study, data were collected from switch motors, which are the important equipment of railways, and the related equipment and these data were evaluated with sector experience and the results related to the failure status of the switch points were revealed. The obtained results were processed with support vector machines and artificial neural networks, which are artificial intelligence methods, and machine learning was performed. In the light of this learning, a decision support model, which predicts possible failures and gives information about the root cause of the failures that have occurred, was developed. This model aims to ensure that the data obtained in each movement of the railway switch point are processed and the necessary corrective and preventive actions are communicated to the maintenance personnel; thus, failures are eliminated before they affect the railway operation and the solution process of the failures that have occurred is shortened. Considering the six switch points from which the data were collected, the experimental results were predicted with 24% RMSE error rates in the SVM method, while they were successfully predicted with RMSE error rates ranging from 2.4% to 6.6% in the ANN method. Therefore, it is observed that the ANN method is more appropriate in the implementation of the established model.

Tourism as a Factor of Demand in Public Road Passenger Transportation in the Republic of Croatia

The paper presents the results of research in tourism as one of the most important factors in the public passenger transport demand. The research has been carried out for the requirements of creating a Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) for the Republic of Croatia for 2016. Traffic and tourism, as strategic economic activities of the Republic of Croatia, have the characteristics of complex and dynamic systems, mutually conditioned by the guidelines of the demand and supply chain of tourist product values. Therefore, the paper is oriented towards the analysis of the significance of tourism for public road passenger transport in the Republic of Croatia. During 2016, road intercity passenger transport carried 50.4 million passengers, out of which 98 percent in domestic and 2 percent in international transport. Passenger road transportation is marked by mild seasonal oscillations, with the summer period marked by the lowest level of demand, and the period from January to March by the largest number of passengers. The provision of public road transportation services in 2016 realised a revenue of 1.8 billion kuna for 433 business subjects registered in this activity. The trends indicate an increase in the number of travelled kilometres by buses with passengers.

Multiperiod Location Models for Urban System Planning With Fuzzy Intercity Passenger Transportation Demands

The quality of transportation between cities depends on the accessibility of intercity passenger transportation (IPT) facilities, which is closely related to regional spatial development plans. Such plans aim to define an urban system (i.e., the level of hierarchy to assign to cities of the region under study) with a class of facilities corresponding to each level of hierarchy. We propose optimization models to help in the decision making in urban system planning (USP) problems. Four types of service networks of USP problems are proposed. Multiperiod, multilevel location models with fuzzy IPT demands are presented to minimize the cost of total demand-weighted travel time and IPT service capacity planning. The IPT demands are denoted by triangular fuzzy numbers. The models are converted to linear programming models using the theory of fuzzy numbers. A case study is provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed model. The comparison results show that the fuzzy method is effective in handling the uncertainty of demand.

СОГЛАСОВАНИЕ РАСПИСАНИЙ АВТОБУСНЫХ МАРШРУТОВ В ОБЛАСТНЫХ ПАССАЖИРСКИХ ПЕРЕВОЗКАХ

In modern conditions of the Russian Federation in the field of traffic management, one of the priorities is to develop and improve the quality of functioning of route transport. One of the main requirements of passengers is the minimum time spent on the trip. It is problematic to meet this requirement without mutual coordination of transport processes along routes and the use of stopping points by vehicles and passengers due to their interdependence. The problem of such coordination is not only in cities, but also in regional settlements. The subject of this study is the coordination of passenger transport processes on regional bus routes that have common sections and stop-and-transfer points. The purpose of the study is to improve the organization of passenger transportation in regional directions by coordinating routes in time. In this study, we developed a method for coordinating bus schedules for regional routes that share common sections of the route or stop-and-transfer points. According to the results of applying the method for the Sargatsky district of the Omsk region, the results were obtained, according to which the average waiting time for a passenger in the case of a transfer was reduced by 60 %. Application of the developed method allows to organize rational distribution of arrival and departure of buses during the day according to the criterion of the minimum waiting time for passengers at the stop and transfer point and allows to solve the problem of inconsistency of bus traffic. Experimental testing has shown that the use of this technique reduces the waiting time for passengers at transfer points by up to 60%, which also reduces the time of network travel. The developed method can be used in the organization of intercity, intermunicipal and rural passenger transport.

The Cause Effect Relationship Model of Service Quality in relation with Overall Satisfaction

Public transportation has become one of the cornerstones of a country’s infrastructure development. In particular, road transportation plays a critical role in developing countries, as large numbers of people use bus transportation as the means to commute between one place to another for work, home, visiting friends, trips etc. Ensuring the service quality in this service, therefore, is crucial. There are limited scientific studies, however, on the service quality of intercity passenger transport in India, especially with regard to infrastructure aspects. In this paper the cause effect relationship model of service quality in relation with overall satisfaction of intercity bus transport is attempted. Results demonstrate three types of passenger profile emerging from the data (K-means clustering). According to findings of the study, the service quality dimension such as empathy, information reliability, luggage assurance, responsiveness, service time reliability, external tangibles and tangibles exhibit the cause effect relationship with respect to overall satisfaction of passengers with technology mediation. It also indicates that, Technology alleviates the influence of responsiveness and environmental dimensions on overall satisfaction. A comprehensive service quality model is built, consisting of core service quality dimensions and external dimension such as technology, policy and road infrastructure for intercity bus transport, a contribution is made to public transport literature. This helps the intercity transport organizations to devise a strategy for service quality for competitive edge.

Establishing relationships between fuel economy and gear ratios of bus transmission units

The engineers of the GAZ Group developed the GAZ Vector Next 10 family of buses on the basis of the GAZon Next 10 truck. The parameters of the engine, transmission units and wheels of the new family of buses undergone significant changes, which inevitably affected their fuel economy. In this regard, the objectives of this work were formulated as the development of a methodology for determining the fuel economy of a bus and establishing relationships between these indicators and the gear ratios of transmission units. The base model of a family of buses designed for intercity passenger transportation was selected as the object of study. To assess the fuel economy of the bus, single indicators were selected: fuel consumption at given speeds and operating fuel consumption at operating speed. These indicators are determined by the graphs of the fuel and economic characteristics of the bus. The article sets out the methods for constructing the named graphs and determining the indicators of the fuel economy of the bus. The effect on the fuel consumption at given speeds of 60 and 80 km / h of gear ratios of the highest stage of five - and six-speed gearboxes and final drive with gear ratios of 3.9 and 4.55 is established. The gear ratios of the gearbox and final drive at which the bus consumes the largest and least amount of fuel per 100 km of track are determined. It is shown that a change in the gear ratios of the transmission units does not significantly affect the operational fuel consumption of the bus. The results of studies performed by the authors of the article can be used by the developer to optimize the gear ratios of the modernized GAZ family of buses Vector Next 10.

Models and algorithms for network design in urban freight distribution systems

Central areas of large cities offer in general many advantages to their inhabitants. Typically, a large number of products, services, and opportunities are available in those urban zones, thus increasing life quality. Unfortunately, these benefits are associated with increasing transportation activities that can cause serious problems, such as traffic congestion, excessive energy consumption, and pollution. This paper aims at presenting a new transport system that consists of transporting freight in long-haul passenger vehicles. Two mixed integer mathematical programming models are presented: one for total cost minimization and the other for the travel time minimization. The problem under study was considered as a multi-commodity network flow problem with time windows, multi transport-lines, and multiple vehicles. Three heuristics based on mixed integer programming (MIP) were designed to solve it: size reduction, LP-and-fix, and a combination of these two procedures. The proposed approaches were validated in a case study designed around the intercity passenger transport system, in Ceará, Northeast of Brazil. Several operational scenarios were evaluated, taking into account the available freight capacities. The developed MIP heuristics produced high-quality solutions, in reasonable computational times, with the LP-and-Fix algorithm outperforming the other approaches.

Success factors in the introduction of an intermodal passenger transportation system connecting high-speed rail with intercity bus services

This study analyzes the success factors of the introduction of an intermodal intercity passenger transportation system in the Kyusyu region, Japan, in March 2011. This system, called “B&S Miyazaki,” integrates an intercity bus service with a high-speed rail service connecting the cities of Miyazaki and Fukuoka. B&S Miyazaki has successfully captured induced intercity travel demand without causing the existing travel modes to lose their ridership. Starting with interviews with major stakeholders, the introduction process for the new system was analyzed in three stages. The results of the analysis unveiled five success factors: (1) the acceptance of a new intermodal system in the intercity transportation market from both users and suppliers; (2) clear incentives for cooperation among stakeholders with expected benefits from asset-sharing and joint marketing activities; (3) an excellent intermodal service package including the short transfer distance, a unified ticketing system, an integrated timetable and schedule adjustment, special discounting, and the coordinated design of train/bus bodies; (4) a win–win solution for the shortcomings of the existing travel modes; and (5) a learning process about the effects for existing operators with flexible operator strategy adjustments.

Investigating Dominant Trip Distance for Intercity Passenger Transport Mode Using Large-Scale Location-Based Service Data

Intercity transport systems have been plagued by low efficiency and overutilization for a long time, due to unhealthy competition among multi-transport modes. Hence, this study aims to estimate the dominant trip distance of intercity passenger transport modes to optimize the allocation of intercity passenger transport resources and improve the efficiency of intercity transport systems. Dominant trip distance was classified into two types: Absolute dominant trip distance and relative dominant trip distance; and their respective models were developed using passenger transport mode share functions and fitting curves. Particularly, the big data of intercity passenger transport mode share rate of more than 360 cities in China was obtained using a network crawler and each passenger transport mode share function and their curves were proposed. Furthermore, the dominant trip distances estimation models of intercity passenger transport were developed and solved. The results show that there are significant differences in dominant trip distance between the transport modes. For example, the absolute and relative dominant trip distances of highway are 8–119 km and 8–463 km, respectively, while those of airway are 1594–3000 km and 2477–3000 km, respectively.

Quantitative causal analysis of mainline passenger train accidents in the United States

The need for shared freight and passenger rail corridors in the United States is increasing due to the growing demand for regional and intercity passenger transport. Several researches have been conducted on reducing the risk of freight train accidents, but little research has been done on the risk of passenger train accidents. The accident rates of passenger trains have declined in the past two decades; however, faster and more frequent passenger train services require even higher safety standards, and therefore further reduction to the risk of passenger train accidents is needed. The research presented in this paper analyzed the passenger train accidents in the United States using the Federal Railroad Administration train accident database to understand the trend of passenger train accident rates, the frequency and severity of different types of accidents, and to explore the major factors that cause them. Derailments and collisions were identified as the most significant types of passenger train accidents, and track failures and human factors, respectively, were the primary causes of those accidents. Accidents caused due to human factors and train operations such as train speed violations and failure to obey signals are often high-consequence accidents and therefore pose the greatest risk. Higher risk infrastructure-related factors include track geometry defects and broken rails or welds. This study on passenger train accidents provides a solid foundation for further research on improving the safety of passenger rail and shared-use rail corridors.

Sustainable development pathway for intercity passenger transport: A case study of China

The transportation sector is responsible for a major share of energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions worldwide. There is already great concern about the fast-growing energy demand and carbon emissions from China’s transportation sector. This study focuses on intercity passenger transport and aims to simulate its future energy demand and carbon emissions pathway by optimizing its technology portfolio based on a developed C3IAM/NET-Transport model. The energy-saving and carbon emission-reduction potential of countermeasures, such as optimizing the transportation structure, improving energy efficiency and promoting alternative fuels were investigated thoroughly and a sustainable development pathway for vehicle technologies and fuels in China’s intercity passenger transport was identified. The model results show that by taking joint countermeasures, intercity passenger transport could save 2515.5 Mtce energy consumption and lead to a cumulative reduction of 8447.4 MtCO2 between 2015 and 2050. China’s intercity passenger transport would peak at the total CO2 emissions of 448.7 MtCO2 in 2030.

Modeling and Analysis of Ticketing Channel Choice for Intercity Bus Passengers: A Case Study in Beijing, China

Buses represent the main mode for intercity passenger transportation in China. In recent years, a multichannel ticketing strategy has been widely employed in the bus passenger transportation industry. However, the mechanisms and key drivers of the channels through which bus passengers purchase tickets are underexplored. Thus, the aim of this study is to empirically apply an integrated choice and latent variable (ICLV) approach to analyze ticketing channel choice behavior and the heterogeneous preferences of bus passengers. The variables incorporated in the model include the socioeconomic characteristics of passengers, trip attributes, and latent attitudes with 12 ordinal indicators. Based on the data of 1800 participants collected from the city of Beijing, China, this study develops a ticketing channel choice ICLV model merging a discrete choice model with a structural equation model. The key factors that affect the channel preference are further discussed through a comparison with a conventional multinomial logit (MNL) model. The results reveal that the three attitudinal variables have a significant influence on ticketing channel choice. Furthermore, this study indicates that perceptual differences exist due to various socioeconomic and trip characteristics. Personal privacy is a major obstacle that prevents passengers from choosing online channels, especially for older passengers and those with lower education.

Expediency of modification of city transport system by implementation of passenger water transport

The object of research is the integration of local passenger water transport in the transport system of the city. Among a number of problematic issues, one can single out the unpreparedness of the urban transport infrastructure for the implementation of water transport for the transport of passengers, although this type of transport is an important component of intercity and suburban passenger transport in world megacities located on water arteries.Water transport is characterized and passenger water transport in Ukraine is analyzed. The definition of «transport system» as a whole and separately in part of urban passenger traffic is investigated. The components of the transport system of the city are determined.The structure of the city transport system in Kyiv (Ukraine) is investigated and supplemented with its new subsystem in the element «city passenger transport» – local passenger water transport. Such a structural change makes it possible to qualitatively improve the existing transport supply of cities with water areas, and to offer local residents an alternative mode of transport. Implementation of a new type of urban passenger transport in the transport system of the city requires its detailed study. Therefore, this type of transport is structured, its classification is provided, the concept of «local passenger water transport» and its types are formulated: Water Bus and Water Taxi, which allows to offer them for further use in the scientific environment, in relation to local passenger water transport.As part of the research, it is proposed to identify elements of local passenger water transport, namely: passengers, transport, local passenger transport enterprises, regulatory entities, and local authorities. Each of the elements is proposed to be structured by type.Thanks to this, a modified scheme of the system of urban passenger transport is developed, which provides the basis for the harmonious implementation of this type of transport. The implementation of the proposed changes is justified by the socio-economic significance of this type of transport and the necessary qualitative structural changes in the urban transport system.

Spatiotemporal Patterns and Decomposition Analysis of CO2 Emissions from Transportation in the Pearl River Delta

Controlling and mitigating CO2 emissions is a challenge for the global environment. Furthermore, transportation is one of the major sources of energy consumption and air pollution emissions. For this reason, this paper estimated CO2 emissions by the bottom-up method, and presented spatiotemporal patterns by spatial autocorrelation methods from transportation during the period 2006 to 2016. It further analyzed the impact factors of CO2 emissions in the Pearl River Delta by the Logarithmic Mean Divisa Index (LMDI)decomposition method. The results indicated that from 2006 to 2016, total CO2 emissions increased year by year. Guangzhou and Shenzhen were the major contributors to regional transportation CO2 emissions. From the perspective of different transport modes, intercity passenger transport and freight transport have always been dominant in the past 11 years. The results indicated that aviation transport was the largest contributor, and that travel by road was the second one. The CO2 emissions generated by rail and water transport were much lower than those from aviation. Private cars became the main source of urban passenger transport CO2 emissions, and their advantages kept increasing. The results indicated that the spatial agglomeration trend feature was negatively correlated, and the further the distance, the more similar the attributes. The cumulative contribution values of population, economic development, transport intensity, energy intensity and energy structure were all positive values, while the cumulative contribution values of transport structure and emission factor were negative. The findings of this study offer help for the scientific understanding of those CO2 emissions from transportation, and for adopting effective measures to reduce CO2 emissions and for the development of green transportation.