2021

Willem Klumpenhouwer, University of Toronto

This paper investigates passenger rail reliability in Canada, where long-distance and intercity passenger rail service operated by VIA Rail Canada runs almost exclusively on track that they do not own. As pressure for greener long-distance travel options mount, VIA is facing reliability challenges attributed primarily to the Canadian operating model and has pushed for separate rights of way for passenger rail service to accommodate growing demand and higher expectations for reliability. To investigate the effects of mixed-traffic operations versus dedicated right of way operations in a Canadian context, this paper performs a comparative reliability analysis of two corridors - one that is owned entirely by VIA Rail, and one that is not. Real-time and scheduled arrival data published by VIA rail and collected over the course of a year and a half is used to develop an understanding of delay propagation on the line and to learn about the effects of reliability bottlenecks on the corridors. Finally, a mathematical model of stochastic movement of trains on a route is used to examine potential benefits of targeted reliability improvements and to provide direction for rail operators on where to focus improvements.

Anjun Li (li.anjun@foxmail.com), Southwest Jiaotong University
Jie Liu, Southwest Jiaotong University
Hironori Kato, University of Tokyo
Qiyuan Peng, Southwest Jiaotong University

The accessibility of a railway corridor is contributed by both conventional railway (CR) and high-speed railway (HSR). Each type of railway has its essential and unique function for serving the corridor. This study illustrates the significance of the coordination of CR and HSR by evaluating and comparing the railway accessibility of Shanghai-Hangzhou (SH) corridor in China and Osaka-Nagoya (ON) corridor in Japan. The two cases both have CR lines and HSR lines along the corridor. The accessibility indicators are numbers of accessible stations and accessible areas within a specific travel time (30, 60, 90, 120 minutes). A method of Layered Cost Distance is applied to estimate the multimodal (including conventional railway, high-speed railway, and walking) travel time with Spatial Analyst tools in Geographic Information System (GIS). The results indicate different urbanization stages and railway planning ideas, which depends on the level of development in different countries. The accessibility of a railway corridor can be highly improved by integrating CR’s local service with HSR’s express service. Planners should consider the feeder function of the existing CR lines when planning a new HSR line, since it enhances the performance of HSR and saves the construction investment.

Qianxi Yan, University of California, Irvine
Jie Bao, Hefei Normal University

Split ticketing strategy provides long-distance passengers to buy multiple tickets for a single journey and connect these tickets into a complete journey. This strategy therefore is beneficial to the passengers for a long origin-destination (OD) pair with a limited number of seats, but causes equity issues for the passengers for a short OD pair. In this paper, an equity-based split ticketing strategy for seats in the same train is proposed, where the optimal protection level for every segment is determined by maximizing the total revenue. It considers the demand uncertainty, ticketing behavior, and passenger heterogeneity. Finally, we present case studies based on real-life transport data to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed strategy. The results show that the equity-based split ticketing strategy provides adequate revenue for the rail operator and enhance equity to meet passenger’s demands.

Yixiang Yue, Beijing Jiaotong University
Mingxuan Zhong, Beijing Jiaotong University
Deyi Li, Beijing Jiaotong University
Mingxin Li, University of Delaware
Ardeshir Faghri, University of Delaware
Silvana Croope, University of Alabama

This paper presents a novel mesoscopic simulation method for analyzing and calculating carrying capacity of railway passenger stations. Due to the random disturbances of train operations in station area, a simulation method that considers the random disturbances of train delays and operation time is proposed. For simulation purposes, a railway passenger station Infrastructure Representing Model (IRM) for fixed equipment is presented first. Based on this mesoscopic IRM, occupation time of each route and track is accumulated, and then resources exploitation rate and the carrying capacity of stations can be estimated. A new computer-aided tool was developed and successfully implemented for analyzing and evaluating the carrying capacity of railway passenger stations. The merits of the proposed method are illustrated through a case study on one of the largest integrated transport terminals in China to demonstrate the effectiveness and validation of the IRM and the random probability method through calculations of each switch group exploitation rate and evaluation of the carrying capacity of this station.

Christopher Cummings, Northwestern University
Hani Mahmassani, Northwestern University

Amtrak ridership has historically lagged behind that of other intercity passenger modes. There have only been a handful of studies to look at Amtrak ridership and identify influences. This study examines the local factors affecting station ridership on the Amtrak network. The local factors include neighborhood economic and demographic characteristics, station accessibility, and intermodal connectivity. A multivariate regression is used to determine the effects of each variable on the station ridership. The results indicate that several local factors do impact station ridership, including accessibility, service quantity, job opportunities, and bus connections. Specifically, the service quantity, accessibility, and job opportunity evidence suggest that competitive commuter service can bolster station ridership. A better understanding of the drivers of Amtrak ridership is provided and the insights could be used to improve service planning on the Amtrak network.

Jing Fan, Tongji University
Hironori Kato, University of Tokyo
Yu Zhang, Tongji University
Ye Li, Tongji University

This paper reviews the historical evolution of China’s High-Speed Railway (HSR) network, evaluates improvements in accessibility, and analyses the associations of improved accessibility with regional economic productivity given regional heterogeneity. Three accessibility indicators were considered: average travel time to all prefectural level regions (ATT), average travel time to important cities (ATI), and daily accessible prefectural level regions (DA4). These indicators are used to quantify the development of the HSR network during two periods, from 2007-2012 and 2012-2018. First, the results unveiled that in the first period, the accessibility indicators of the east region were improved the most while in the second period, the west significantly improved. Next, we analyzed the economic productivity and economic equilibrium of urban agglomerations affected by introducing HSR. That results suggested that the Triangle of Central China, Chengdu-Chongqing, and Central Guizhou urban agglomerations performed well as the HSR developed. Then, the linkages between regional economic productivity and accessibility improvement were measured using a multivariable linear regression with panel data. The results showed that the reduction of ATT and ATI significantly positively contributed to economic productivity at different geographical scales in China; and that the ATT had a larger effect in the northeast and central regions while the ATI had a larger effect on northeast and west regions.

Norihiro Miwa, University of Tokyo
Ayushman Bhatt (bhatt-ayushman@g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp), University of Tokyo
Hironori Kato, University of Tokyo

This study investigates the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) introduction on regional income and innovation of peripheries in Japan. Average income per capita (IN) and number of patent applications per employee (PA) are assumed to represent the regional income and innovation, respectively. Peripheries are defined based on each municipality’s employment density and its accessibility measured by effective density, an index representing the inter-regional communication opportunities. Municipality-level panel data of Japan for a 40-year period are used. Difference-in-differences analysis on municipalities with variable timings of treatment is employed to investigate the HSR’s impacts on IN and PA of peripheries. Findings indicate that HSR introduction has contributed to the mitigation of regional inequalities by positively affecting the IN and PA of peripheries. Further, the results estimated with the peripheries based on inter-regional accessibility show that HSR’s impact on IN is smaller in peripheries than in core regions while its impact on PA is larger in peripheries than in core regions. They suggest the crucial role that accessibilities may play in peripheries for catching up with the economic growth of core regions, particularly in a context of geographical concentration of economic activities, as in the case of Japan. It is also argued that the enhanced PA in peripheries with poor accessibilities might not have been well exploited for economic gains because of their underdeveloped industrial structures and distance to large hub cities leading to challenges in catching up.