Why do passengers choose a specific car of a metro train during the morning peak hours?

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2014

Subject Area

mode - subway/metro, place - asia, operations - crowding, technology - passenger information, ridership - behaviour

Keywords

Metro crowding, Loading diversity factor, Railway capacity, Train car choice, Nested logit model, Latent variable

Abstract

Crowding on metro trains is an important measure of passenger satisfaction and also provides a criterion for determining service frequency and the number of cars necessary for a train set. Particularly in metropolitan areas during morning peak hours, many studies have revealed a considerable difference in the crowding of specific cars on a single train. To accommodate the impact of this phenomenon in calculating metro capacity, a loading diversity factor has been adopted in many transportation studies. However, the underlying causes behind the uneven nature of carriage loading have rarely been examined in a systematic manner. In particular, there has been no trial to explain the nature of choice within a framework for individual passengers. Under the assumption that the uneven selection might stem from each passenger’s intrinsic preference for a specific car, the present study established a nested logit model to investigate the potential factors affecting the choice of a specific car on a train. Passengers were interviewed as they boarded from the platforms of line 7 of the Seoul Metro during the morning peak hours. Results show that the motivation to minimize the walking distance at destination stations turned out to be the most decisive in determining a passenger’s choice for a specific car of a train.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Elsevier, copyright remains with them.

Comments

Transportation Research Part A Home Page:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

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