Regional Rail Passenger Research Articles

Comprehensive examination of regional railway passenger behavior and dwell time components: Insights from video-based observations in Victoria, Australia

In understudied regional railway operations, this study explores passenger boarding and alighting patterns and how station design impacts them, particularly dwell times. Despite extensive metropolitan and suburban train research, regional railways have been overlooked. This study investigates regional rail passenger flow and dwell time to bridge this gap. This article studies dwell times and passenger boarding and alighting at two regional stations in Victoria, Australia, using CCTV data. The objective is to identify insights that might improve regional railway services' efficiency and user experience and advocate for sector-specific solutions. Analysis indicates distinct station boarding and alighting features, highlighting the discovery of the ‘blinded phenomenon’ for train conductors particularly in the afternoon peak (PMP). The results of the study showed that PMP services, which prioritise alighting passengers, had higher dwell times than the morning peak (AMP) services, which emphasise boarding passengers. Obstructed views make it difficult for train conductors to monitor passenger alighting, prolonging dwell times. Better human resource strategies, artificial intelligence for crowd surveillance, and strategic CCTV system deployment to streamline operations and improve passenger experience on regional railways are proposed in the paper, laying the groundwork for future research and operational changes in this vital transportation sector.

Determinants of irregular demand for regional rail passenger services – case study of High Tatras in Slovakia

AbstractThe demand for public transport by tourists increases significantly in tourist-attractive destinations. This is in addition to regular passengers commuting to school and work. The level of irregular demand is influenced by several factors related to the characteristics of the day of the week, the period of the year, and the current weather. The main goal of the paper is to verify which factors most influence the irregular demand for transport in a tourist-attractive area to ensure operational planning of public passenger transport. Thanks to this, it is possible to ensure sufficient capacity and, at the same time, the efficiency of the operation of public passenger transport. The paper analyzes the main determinants of the irregular demand for regional public rail passenger transport in the High Tatras region of Slovakia. Multiple linear regressions were used to model the number of irregular passengers. The variables representing the day of the week, the attractiveness of the period, and the holiday were found to be the most significant. The variables describing the weather such as maximum daily temperature, precipitation, clouds, and wind had less influence. The obtained mathematical models for forecasting the irregular demand for public passenger transport can help optimize the timetable’s operational setting and the train sets’ size.

Making Regional Railroads More Attractive—Research Studies in Germany and Patronage Characteristics

This article summarizes current research on regional rail passenger service in Germany. The aim of the research was to help rail operators, municipalities along the rail lines, and transportation planners identify the most effective strategies for improving rail service and patronage. The article outlines study contents and purpose and then summarizes the most important study findings. It also presents action and research recommendations. In addition, current rail developments in Germany and methods for increasing patronage and reducing costs with special focus on the separation of infrastructure and operations are described. Finally, patronage data for different rail segments are compared to help determine whether improvement measures should be applied and what impacts they could have on patronage.

Estimation of Transport Potential in Regional Rail Passenger Transport by Using the Innovative Mathematical-Statistical Gravity Approach

Planning the range of transport services in the selected geographical area is particularly relevant in the context of developing integrated transport systems. The aim is to build a sustainable public passenger transport system as an alternative to individual transport. Realizing quality and efficient transport services is a comprehensive process, though there are currently no applicable principles of its proposal and creation in terms of creating the appropriate range of railway infrastructure. The paper presents the general research results focused on solving the problems of transport services in the regional passenger railway transport. The gravity model allows the study of the dependence between the population in the adjacent area, the availability of stops and the length of the transport line. A part of the research is to adjust the inputs of this model to more accurately determine the range of railway infrastructure. Based on the research of the palette of railway lines, the necessary capacity of infrastructure in terms of ensuring the required number of trains in peak hours is adjusted. The output is a proposal of the session to the calculation of transport potential and subsequently its practical application. Finally, based on its resulting values, it is possible to adjust the transport concept to set up a more efficient and higher quality timetable.

Efficient Railway Crew Scheduling in German Regional Passenger Transport

SINCE THE GERMAN RAILWAY REFORM IN 1996, federal states and transport associations are responsible for regional rail passenger transport. Usually, transport associations determine lines and timetab...

Analysis of the current state of rail passenger transport in Podkarpackie voivodship

The article presents an analysis of the analysis of the current state of regional rail passenger transport services provided in the Podkarpackie voivodship. An analysis was made of the transport services currently provided, the current technical condition of the rail-way infrastructure and the characteristics of the rolling stock in service.

Opportunities for Solving Urban and Environmental Problems by Progressive City Logistics Tools

Abstract At present, high traffic intensity level on the roads currently saturates a great demand for individual transportation. Mobility is an important part of everyday activities in cities. The increasing number of passenger and freight vehicles on the widening transport infrastructure raises several problems. The range of use of public passenger transport does satisfy enough the citizens needs and its use is constantly decreasing, especially in the new EU countries. One of the reasons is also the growing sale and production of new passenger cars in the EU, resulting in congestion in the road infrastructure of cities and environmental problems. These issues are dealt with the modern City Logistics concept. The contribution focused on the basic principles of city logistics, the reasons for its development and, in particular, the possibilities of practical use. An example is the city of Trenčín in Slovakia, where a regional rail passenger transport is proposed for city traffic service including Park and Ride system.

The impact of including service quality into efficiency analysis: The case of franchising regional rail passenger serves in Germany

Based on a 12 years panel data set for franchised regional rail services, this paper studies the impact of including service quality into an analysis of efficiency differences between the German public transport authorities (PTAs) in using their available public funds. The analysis employs a two-stage efficiency analysis with a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in the first stage and a Tobit panel model in the second stage. Both a base model with conventional output variables and a model which includes additional indicators of service quality provide robust results regarding the factors which explain efficiency differences between PTAs. PTAs with a higher share of tendering, a higher share of gross contracts and longer and smaller contracts were more efficient than others, with the effect being even stronger when including quality of service indicators. A further finding is the change of PTA’s ranking when including quality of service. Therefore, neglecting quality of service and restricting efficiency analysis to conventional output measures might result in misleading policies.

Practical application of city logistics in the city of Trenčín

At present, mobility is an important part of everyday activities in cities. The increasing number of passenger and freight vehicles on the widening transport infrastructure raises several problems. The range of use of public passenger transport does satisfy enough the citizens needs and its use is constantly decreasing, especially in the new EU countries. One of the reasons is also the growing sale and production of new passenger cars in the EU, resulting in congestion in the road infrastructure of cities. These issues are dealt with the modern City Logistics concept. The paper is aimed to the basic principles of city logistics, the reasons for its development and, in particular, the possibilities of practical use. An example is the city of Trenčín in Slovakia, where a regional rail passenger transport is proposed for city traffic service including Park and Ride system.

Le transport ferroviaire régional de voyageurs : un processus collectif d’apprentissage

Le transport ferroviaire regional de voyageurs se presente depuis la fin des annees 1990 comme une sorte d’exception francaise. C’est en effet un secteur ou une reforme a ete conduite sereinement et a connu un reel succes, sans doute car elle a ete progressive et a pris le temps de l’experimentation. Ainsi, apres les six, puis sept regions experimentatrices, qui se sont lancees en 1997 dans ce qui est encore un processus collectif d’apprentissage, ce sont l’ensemble des regions metropolitaines (Corse et Ilede-France exceptees) qui sont entrees en janvier 2002 dans l’ere de la gestion decentralisee du transport regional de voyageurs. Aujourd’hui, nous avons le recul necessaire pour evaluer ce processus d’apprentissage, son cheminement, ses resultats et ses perspectives. Une evaluation qui est, dans un premier temps, retrospective, pour eclairer le jeu des acteurs et la nouvelle dynamique qui en a decoule, tant pour l’offre que pour la demande. Nous proposons ensuite une evaluation prospective, car le succes meme de la regionalisation invite a poursuivre le processus d’apprentissage, fut-ce en s’approchant de transformations qui relevent sans doute plus de la discontinuite que de la continuite.

Europeanization through Regionalization? Reforming the French Railways

This article analyses the interaction between Europeanization and regionalization in France, as reflected in recent rail transport reform, through which responsibility for the organization and funding of regional rail passenger services, hitherto exercised on behalf and under the authority of the central state by the national rail company, has been transferred to regional councils. The evidence presented here suggests that the underlying logic of policy change has been provided by regional input into norms and substance, generating a highly pluralistic pattern of Europeanization from below. Significant convergence may nonetheless be observed in the regions' commitment to the regional rail system as a public service and their resistance to pressures in the direction of economic neo-liberalism. Core residual features of the traditional French rail service ideology have been incorporated into distinctive regional strategies, bringing together elements of regional and national path dependency in a selective process of Europeanization through regionalization.

Rostering in a rail passenger carrier

In this paper we present an applied study, commissioned by the regional rail passenger carrier EuskoTren, into how the annual workload of drivers can be allocated in an egalitarian fashion. The allocation must meet the constraints arising from working conditions and the preferences of employees, as reflected in collective bargaining agreements. The workload varies over the five periods, into which the year is divided, and according to the day of the week. Moreover, not all morning, evening and night shifts are of equal duration. Reduced services on public holidays are also considered. The solution to the problem proposed is obtained in four linked steps, at each of which a binary programming problem is solved using commercial software. Step one is to build five lists of weekly multi-shift patterns, two of them rotating, that contain all the shifts in the week. Step two consists of the partially rotating annual assignment of patterns to drivers, step three involves the extraction of shifts by reduction of services on public holidays, and step four incorporates the durations in hours into the shifts already assigned. The final solution obtained is quite satisfactory: all drivers are assigned a similar number of morning, evening and night shifts and Sundays off, and they work practically the same number of days and hours per year. The results obtained, the adaptability of the system to new requirements and the computation time used are fully satisfactory to the firm, which has decided to implement the model.

Rail infrastructure charging and on-track competition in Germany

Abstract Germany was one of the pioneers amongst the European railways in opening up the network for third party access and introducing track access charging schemes. Several rail companies run services on the tracks of the incumbent company DB. This paper analyses the rules for network access, the track access charging scheme and the problems of competition in the rail market. The focus is on regional rail passenger transport due to the fact that this is the most lucrative and promising market for new entrants. The main result is that in this segment in particular non-DB companies have increasingly used the chances which were opened by (paid) access to DB tracks and competitive tendering by regional authorities. However, although their market share has grown DB is still the major carrier. The failure to set an appropriate institutional and regulatory framework has proven to be the major obstacle to a more intensive competition in the rail market.

Competition for the German regional rail passenger market 5 years after regionalization

The paper investigates the competition for regional passenger rail services in Germany from 1996 to 2000 by using data mainly provided by regional authorities. It analyses data on the level of network characteristics, contract life, the Länder (i.e. regions), competitive placing procedures, and their winners as well as achieved cost and services improvements. It finds that with competition being rare, the amount of competitively placed services declined until recently. Only about half of the regional authorities gained experience with competitive placings, which points at the expertise deficit of these bodies. A diverse picture on competitive placings' characteristics such as network size and contract life appears. State-owned carrier DB AG remains the dominant player as it could win the majority of the competitively procured services. Private companies have played a minor role in the game up to now. Accomplished reduction of subsidies and improved service quality respectively provide an indication of the potential for enhancing efficiency in this market.