Passenger Transfer Research Articles

A method of mathematical modeling for transfer hub establishment in Saint Petersburg

Abstract Nowadays, it is almost impossible to design and forecast (plan) operation of transportation systems without mathematical modeling tools and special software. The paper discusses comparison and application of mathematical modeling methods in Russia and abroad for functional and spatial development of cities in the transport and urban-planning field. A method for choosing transfer hub locations in the city plan, based on the developed mathematical model, is proposed. Under the conditions of suburbanization of large agglomerations, development of a more comfortable passenger transportation system can decrease the automobilization level in the long view. The system of transfer hubs involving transport with large carrying capacity (rail transport) represents the basis for development of a larger and more sophisticated transportation system attractive for people of various social classes. When choosing transfer hubs, it is suggested to take into account subway/railway station stability and demand (given the existing population displacement) based on a comparative analysis of modeling results where modeling involved artificial delays for entrance. The modeling was conducted using a software suite developed by the Saint Petersburg R&D and Design Institute for Urban Planning and Saint Petersburg Institute for Economics and Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Based on the experiment results, it is possible to classify stations using the proposed factor of delay value impact on the transfer passenger flow. The value of factors for delay value impact on the transfer passenger flow can be used as one of the factors for prioritizing transfer hub establishment.

A Comparative Analysis of Three Major Transfer Airports in Northeast Asia Focusing on Incheon International Airport Using a Conjoint Analysis

ABSTRACT Due mainly to the privatization and commercialization of airline companies and deregulation of the aviation rules, the demand for air transport has continuously been increasing. Airport authorities state that transfer passengers, who contribute to the large portion of the airports’ profits, are gaining much more importance, particularly in the Northeast Asia region where the air transport industry is very vital. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the competitiveness of IIA (Incheon International Airport) with other major airports located in Northeast Asia in passenger transfers made between Southeast Asia and China to North America using Conjoint Analysis. Results have indicated that airport brand is the most important attribute for the competitiveness of airport, followed by cost, connectivity and duty free shops. In further analysis focusing on brand value of the three airports measured by the use of transfer passengers, it was revealed that IIA needs more effort in developing their brand identity to become the leading transfer hub airport. Based on the results, recommendations for increasing the brand value have also been suggested.

Proposing a framework for airline service quality evaluation using Type-2 Fuzzy TOPSIS and non-parametric analysis

This paper focuses on evaluating airline service quality from the perspective of passengers' view. Until now a lot of researches has been performed in airline service quality evaluation in the world but a little research has been conducted in Iran, yet. In this study, a framework for measuring airline service quality in Iran is proposed. After reviewing airline service quality criteria, SSQAI model was selected because of its comprehensiveness in covering airline service quality dimensions. SSQAI questionnaire items were redesigned to adopt with Iranian airlines requirements and environmental circumstances in the Iran's economic and cultural context. This study includes fuzzy decision-making theory, considering the possible fuzzy subjective judgment of the evaluators during airline service quality evaluation. Fuzzy TOPSIS have been applied for ranking airlines service quality performances. Three major Iranian airlines which have the most passenger transfer volumes in domestic and foreign flights were chosen for evaluation in this research. Results demonstrated Mahan airline has got the best service quality performance rank in gaining passengers' satisfaction with delivery of high-quality services to its passengers, among the three major Iranian airlines. IranAir and Aseman airlines placed in the second and third rank, respectively, according to passenger's evaluation. Statistical analysis has been used in analyzing passenger responses. Due to the abnormality of data, Non-parametric tests were applied. To demonstrate airline ranks in every criterion separately, Friedman test was performed. Variance analysis and Tukey test were applied to study the influence of increasing in age and educational level of passengers on degree of their satisfaction from airline's service quality. Results showed that age has no significant relation to passenger satisfaction of airlines, however, increasing in educational level demonstrated a negative impact on passengers' satisfaction with airline's service quality.

MILP formulations and a TS algorithm for reliable last train timetabling with uncertain transfer flows

This paper aims to develop reliable last train timetabling models for increasing number of successful transfer passengers and reducing total running time for metro corporations. The model development is based on an observation that real-world transfer flows capture the characteristics of randomness in a subway network. For systematically modelling uncertainty, a sample-based representation and two types of non-expected evaluation criteria, namely max–min reliability criterion and percentile reliability criterion are proposed to generate reliable timetables for last trains. The equivalent mixed integer linear programming formulations are deduced for the respective evaluation strategies by introducing auxiliary variables. Based upon the linearised models, an efficient tabu search (TS) algorithm incorporating solution generation method is presented. Finally, a number of small problem instances are solved using CPLEX for the linear models. The obtained results are also used as a platform for assessing the performance of proposed TS approach which is then tested on large Beijing Subway instances with promising results.

A drive for better air service: How air service imbalances across neighboring regions integrate air and highway demands

Between 2000 and 2010, newly merged U.S. airlines decreased service to airports in small and mid-sized metropolitan regions, opting to consolidate their operations at high-value airport hubs (passenger transfer points). At this point travelers living in small and mid-sized regions likely began leaking, or abandoning their local airport to take flights from hub airports offering more convenient flight options. The extent of this practice, however, is not well established. Our study asks to what extent airline consolidation deepened the divide in service levels between airports that are 100–300 miles apart, and seeks to estimate the magnitude of air traveler leakage at small and medium airports across the U.S. We estimate that travelers living in small and mid-sized metropolitan regions have the incentive to “leak” from their airport to a distant, better-served airport. Our estimates suggest that 15.7%–31.8% of the total passengers living proximate to a small or mid-sized airport have the incentive to leak. Our estimates range from 10.8% to 33.0% for travelers facing a non-stop itinerary from their local airport and 33.3%–85.1% for travelers facing a connecting itinerary. The potential leaked passengers contribute 1–2.75% of average daily highway traffic at heavily congested portions of the interstate highways connecting airports and up to 10–12% of traffic on low density portions of the highway. Our study illustrates the relationship between interregional surface transportation and the aviation system by estimating the number of travelers who may choose to travel long distances by car to access a relatively busier, larger airport with better service. The results of this study help to shape the evolving role of airport managers in controlling demand and delay at major hub airports and in building and managing air service and smaller airports across the U.S.

Stated preference survey for estimating passenger transfer penalties: design and application to Madrid

IntroductionTransfers in multimodal urban trips imply a disutility for travellers, who perceive them as a penalty when using public transport. It is therefore important to estimate the utility associated to transfers and the main factors affecting it, to allow policymakers to reduce users’ perceived disutility and enhance their intention to use public transport. The aim of this paper is to develop a Stated Preference experiment to estimate the penalty perceived by commuters (workers and students) when making transfers in multimodal urban trips.MethodA web-based survey combining a Revealed Preferences and Stated Preferences survey was created using Ngene software, and an efficient design was applied to estimate multinomial logit models. We present here the first stage of the research: the design and results of the pilot survey of commuters travelling by metro or urban bus in the city of Madrid, Spain.ResultsThe findings reveal a pure transfer penalty, independent of in-vehicle time, walking and waiting time and crowding. This pure penalty increases with the number of transfers. Crowded transfers cause a high disutility for commuters, which rises with the number of transfers in the total trip.ConclusionsThis paper highlights the importance of conducting a pilot survey when designing the final survey. Transfer penalties vary between cities, so pilot studies are encouraged to obtain more accurate results. Further research is needed to consolidate the pilot results with those of a final survey.

Integrated public transport timetable synchronization with vehicle scheduling

ABSTRACTIn public transport (PT) operations planning, timetable synchronization is a useful strategy to reduce inter-route or inter-modal passenger transfer waiting time and provide a well-connected service. This work addresses the integrated PT timetable synchronization with vehicle scheduling problem for a given PT network. A new bi-objective integer programming model is developed for the problem. The objectives are to maximize the number of simultaneous vehicle arrivals at the transfer nodes of a PT network, and to minimize the required fleet size. A novel two-stage deficit function (DF)-based method is developed to solve the mathematical model using a human–machine interactive approach. At the first stage, some existing optimizers are employed to quickly generate an initial solution. At the second stage, a DF-based graphical optimization technique is utilized to generate alternative Pareto-efficient solutions by reducing the fleet size. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed model has the potential to be applied for large-scale real-world networks.

Development of a model for determining the time parameters for the interaction of passenger transport in a suburban transport and transfer terminal

Servicing of passengers in the conditions of suburban communication is represented through a description of the connection between the components of the process of functioning of the route network and the totality of technological operations performed within the suburban transport and transfer terminal. The object of research is the process of functioning of a suburban transport and transfer terminal. It is suggested to consider the interaction of routes from the point of view of ensuring a reduction in the time of passenger transfer, which is realized by introducing a time combination of the location of vehicles of various types of services in a suburban transport and transfer terminal. The existing general structure and formalized components of the model of technological interaction of passenger transport in a suburban transport and transfer terminal. Based on the assessment of the total time of passenger transfer, the characteristic conditions and areas of acceptable values of the rational duration of the overlapped vehicle location in the suburban transport and transfer terminal are highlighted. The use of such form of interaction representation of passenger transport makes it possible to realize the procedure for finding rational time parameters for the simultaneous finding of vehicles of various types of services in suburban transport and transfer terminal. This search procedure ensures the minimization of the time spent by passengers for transfer in accordance with the existing opportunities of the resource channels of the subjects of passenger transport.

Exploring the determinants for airport profitability: Traffic characteristics, low-cost carriers, seasonality and cost efficiency

Given the growing pressure on aeronautical revenues, the increasing focus on airports’ financial performance and the sharpened state aid guidelines in Europe, it is valuable to have detailed insight in the determinants for airport profitability. This paper fills in a gap in scientific research by presenting the most important traffic and financial determinants for airport profitability, since the majority of scientific literature on airport (financial) performance focuses on efficiency rather than on profitability. Comprehensive airport traffic and financial data for 125 airports in Europe, the United States (US), Canada, Australia and New Zealand for the period 2010–2016 have been used to estimate several fixed-effects panel data regression on profit margin. Among others, the results show evidence for the fact that an increasing share of transfer passengers affects an airport’s profit margin. In addition, there is no sign of a general LCC effect and just limited evidence for the fact that the market share of specific LCCs affect airport profitability: only an increase in the market share of Southwest Airlines at major airports leads to lower profit margins. Moreover, a quadratic relationship between seasonality and profitability has been identified. It points at the existence of a certain optimal seasonality score. Below that tipping point, a decrease in seasonality leads to higher profit margins. On the contrary, a further reduction of seasonality after the tipping point leads to lower profit margins. This might indicate that no or limited seasonality is a result of capacity constraints and, in turn, leads to increasing operating costs related to congestion. Regarding financial variables, the results especially show significant positive effects of capital cost efficiencies on profitability. Those effects are especially large for airports in the US and for small regional airports. Labour productivity only plays a important role in the profitability of US airports. Finally, the results show that regional O/D airports largely depend on regional economic development and population growth, while the major airports rather depend on global economic development than on an increase in local demand.

An adaptive large neighborhood search heuristic for solving a robust gate assignment problem

Robust gate assignment problem with transfer passengers and tows is considered.A large neighborhood search heuristic is proposed to solve the integrated problem.Extensive experiments are conducted to justify the performance of our approach. With the rapid growth of air traffic demand, airport capacity becomes a major bottleneck within the air traffic control systems. Minor disturbances may have a large impact on the airport surface operations due to the overly tight schedules, which results in frequent gate conflict occurrences during airports daily operations. A robust gate schedule that is resilient to disturbances is essential for an airport to maintain a good performance. Unfortunately, there is no efficient expert system available for the airport managers to simultaneously consider the traditional cost (the aircraft tow cost, transfer passenger cost) and the robustness. To fill this gap, in this paper, we extend the traditional gate assignment problem and consider a wider scope, in which the traditional costs and the robustness are simultaneously considered. A mathematical model is first built, which leads to a complex non-linear model. To efficiently solve this model, an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm is then designed. We novelly propose multiple local search operators by exploring the characteristics of the gate assignment problem. The comparison with the benchmark algorithm shows the competitiveness of proposed algorithm in solving the considered problem. Moreover, the proposed methodology also has great potential from the practical perspective since it can be easily integrated into current expert systems to help airport managers make satisfactory decisions.

South East Europe Hub and Spoke Air Network Reconfiguration

The paper presents the passenger and cargo historical traffic data analysis at the Zagreb Airport, at certain airports in the wider region and globally for a period of half a century. The war during 1990s and the disintegration of Yugoslavia had as a consequence the breakdown of air transport based on hub and spoke system with three airports as a hub: Zagreb, Belgrade and Ljubljana. During and after the war, the domestic airliner in the region and a foreign airliner implemented primarily point-to-point system. Hub airports have become origin-destination airports with mainly local passengers and insignificant ratio of transfer and transit passengers. The causes of slow passenger and cargo traffic growth at the Zagreb Airport and of passengers at certain airports in the narrow region have been analysed and the results are lower growth of air traffic at capital airports of the new countries and greater air traffic growth on the capital airports and others in the countries of a wide region comparing with the global passenger transport growth. The paper indicates the possible measures to increase the share of transfer passengers and cargo traffic at the Zagreb Airport and certain airports in the immediate region.

Delay resistant line planning with a view towards passenger transfers

The line planning step, as part of the public transportation planning process, is an elementary problem. When generating public transportation systems in a conventional fashion, the line planning problem is one of the first to solve. Hence, subsequent problems rely on the solution of the line planning problem. Line planning has been studied from various perspectives and is understood very well. Still, the effect of this planning step on to the next ones has only received minor attention. In this paper, we study the effect of transfers on the delay resistance and propose a line planning model which provides a good basis for a delay resistant transportation system. To this end, the concept of preferable paths from the direct travelers line planning model is further extended. The model includes the routing of passengers in order to minimize passenger transfers. A column generation approach is shown to properly solve the proposed model. As such, this is the first line planning model which detailedly routes the passengers and is still tractable on realistically sized instances. Finally, it is shown that minimizing the passenger transfers at the line planning stage contributes to an increasing delay resistance in the public transportation system.

Passenger’s Satisfaction on Long Distance Terminals: Case Study City of Zagreb

Every city has one or more long distance terminals for domestic or international transport. Usually, long distance terminal are connected to the city transport network (metro, tramway, buses, car or bike sharing, and private car) and can be unimodal or multimodal terminals. From the passengers’ perspective multimodal terminals are much more convenient and preferred. In the last decade terminals across Europe have developed not only in transport function, but also in hospitality management (bars, restaurants, accommodation…). Today, terminals have also developed into shopping areas, so they are attracting more and more people. Nevertheless, we must not neglect the primary function of a terminal: transport start/stop point for passengers. The focus group of a terminal is passengers. For day-to-day operation, but also for the development of terminal it’s crucial to make regularly surveys about passenger satisfaction. This paper will present the results of passenger satisfaction survey in the long distance terminal in the City of Zagreb. The City of Zagreb is the capital of the Republic of Croatia, one of the 28 member states of the European Union. It is interesting that Zagreb has two unimodal long distance terminals, one for railways and the second one for buses. Therefore, the transfer passengers have practical problems when they change modes of transport for long distance travel. Passengers in both terminals have been interviewed. The survey for both terminals has the same question, so a comparative analysis could be done.

Coordination of Feeder Bus Schedule with Train Service at Integrated Transport Hubs

This paper proposes a schedule coordination method for transfer problems between an urban rail transit service and its feeder bus service. For given train schedules, a novel mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model is formulated to obtain a coordinated bus schedule with the objective of minimizing the weighted sum of passenger transfer costs and bus operating costs. The queuing process for transfer passengers at the transport hubs, which is attributed to both high transfer volumes and limited bus capacity, is discussed and considered in the coordination problem. The vital decision variable is the terminal departure time of each target feeder bus trip within a certain time period. A hybrid solution method that integrates heuristic and enumerative algorithms was developed to solve the MINLP model, and numerical experiments were conducted for different scenarios. The results indicate that the feeder bus schedule coordinated by the developed model is capable of substantially reducing the transfer waiting time for train passengers with a slight increase in bus operating costs.

Class Library for Simulations of Passenger Transfer Nodes as Elements of the Public Transport System

Transfer nodes are essential elements of public transport systems which provide door-to-door transport services for passengers. Parameters of the technological processes in public transport systems are stochastic variables, thus, computer simulations are usually used for solving optimization problems of public transport. There is a number of simulation tools supporting decision-making in public transportation, but they don’t provide the flexibility for solving the transfer nodes optimization problems. Authors present a library of classes implemented in Python, which could be used for computer simulations of public transfer nodes. The proposed software allows researchers to change technological parameters during simulation procedures and makes possible automatization of simulation experiments in the field of passengers’ transportation.

Simulation-based Public Transport Multi-modal Hub Analysis and Planning

The multimodal transport system concept, transportation systems management technology and other researcher's related studies of multimodal hub planning are analysed in the paper. A methodology for multimodal transport management support systems development is proposed based on the performed theoretical analysis.The proposed methodology includes three subsystems: transport traffic control support system, transport cruising time synchronization system, and user support system. The information of the population of the Latvian cities and other necessary data has been collected and processed using open source statistical data bases. The available transport timetables and structure details of the JSC “Riga International Coach Terminal” (further in text – Terminal) and Passenger Train Station are used as the input data for simulation model.The developed methodology is approbated using simulation technology. The proposed public transport multimodal node development methodology is tested on the Terminal bimodal transport hub “train - international bus”. The experiments are performed by analyzing capacity of waiting hall and passenger service level based on the average passenger transfer time between transport arrival and departure. Finally, recommendations on the increasing of the operation efficiency of the bimodal transport hub “train - international bus” are given.

Last-Train Timetabling under Transfer Demand Uncertainty: Mean-Variance Model and Heuristic Solution

Traditional models of timetable generation for last trains do not account for the fact that decision-maker (DM) often incorporates transfer demand variability within his/her decision-making process. This study aims to develop such a model with particular consideration of the decision-makers’ risk preferences in subway systems under uncertainty. First, we formulate an optimization model for last-train timetabling based on mean-variance (MV) theory that explicitly considers two significant factors including the number of successful transfer passengers and the running time of last trains. Then, we add the mean-variance risk measure into the model to generate timetables by adjusting the last trains’ departure times and running times for each line. Furthermore, we normalize two heterogeneous terms of the risk measure to provide assistance in getting reasonable results. Due to the complexity of MV model, we design a tabu search (TS) algorithm with specifically designed operators to solve the proposed timetabling problem. Through computational experiments involving the Beijing subway system, we demonstrate the computational efficiency of the proposed MV model and the heuristic approach.

Competition between High‐Speed Rail and Airline Based on Game Theory

The coexistence of high‐speed rail (HSR) and airline in a busy transportation corridor generates competition between the two transportation modes. An unfair competition between HSR and airline not only reduces both revenues, but also triggers a series of social problems. Based on generalized costs, this paper proposes combining an improved gray prediction model, modified gravity model, and Logit model to predict the average passenger flow, induced passenger flow, and transfer passenger flow. According to the predicted results, we establish a game model that considers different stages of the HSR development. For demonstrative purposes, the approach is applied to an empirical study in China, that is, the competition between Beijing‐Shenyang HSR and airline. Malignant fare war will make both parties lose out. Either mode that improves service quality will generate more revenue. If both parties improve the level of service, all incomes of the HSR, airline, and community increase. Results show the HSR contribution is greater than the airline in the case study.

Transfer demand prediction for timed transfer coordination in public transport operational control

SummaryTimed transfer coordination in public transit reduces passenger transfer time by providing seamless interconnected transfers. The problem arises when a Receiving Vehicle (RV) arrives to the transfer stop before a Feeding Vehicle (FV) carrying transferring passengers. Timed transfer coordination in operational control dynamically decides whether a RV is held at the transfer stop to allow transfers, or departs as scheduled. While transfer demand is essential for implementing timed transfer coordination, this variable is generally not available in public transit because of the lack of passenger transfer plans. The problem of acquiring this variable in real‐time has also received limited attention in the related literature.This paper proposes a new method to dynamically predict the transfer demand. We anticipate the transferring probability from each individual passenger by examining historical travel itineraries. Three different types of models (simple analytical, statistical, and computation intelligence model) are developed to forecast the number of transferring passengers. Numerical experiments using observed Automatic Vehicle Location and Automatic Fare Collection data from South East Queensland, Australia show the accuracy and applicability of the proposed models in timed transfer coordination. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

TASeT: Improving the Efficiency of Electric Taxis With Transfer-Allowed Rideshare

We consider a promising application for electric taxis (eTaxis) in transportation cyberphysical systems. The new rideshare scheme introduced herein takes into consideration both the limited battery of eTaxis and the user requirements. In the proposed eTaxi-sharing system, a passenger may share a taxi with others to enjoy a reduced fare and can potentially transfer from one eTaxi to another before reaching her destination, as long as her total trip time is within the maximum she specifies to be tolerable. Transfers are restricted to only take place at the designated (safe and convenient) battery charging stations scattered around the city. When an eTaxi comes to a charging station to pick up/drop off a transfer passenger, the eTaxi's battery can be charged. In this paper, we address a new optimization problem called Transfer-Allowed Shared eTaxis (TASeT), whose goal is to schedule an eTaxis service and find optimal rideshare and transfer plans to maximize the system throughput in terms of the number of passengers served by the taxi service within a given time period. A mixed-integer programming (MIP) formulation is presented to solve TASeT, along with an efficient greedy heuristic. Aside from large-scale simulation, we also present a case study that utilizes real taxi traces collected from the city of Shanghai, China. Compared with the nontransferable taxi-sharing (NTT) case, our solution could improve the number of served passengers and shared travel distance by 22% and 37%, respectively, during rush hours.