20 Years of Rail Crowding Valuation Studies: Evidence and Lessons from British Experience

This paper reviews evidence from British experience of the valuation of rail crowding obtained over 20 years from 17 studies. It summarizes these studies, places some useful empirical evidence in the public domain for the first time and draws lessons from this considerable body of evidence and experience. Crowding valuations, both for standing and seated in crowding conditions, are summarized in terms of time multipliers, which are inherently more transferable than monetary equivalents. These are seen to vary with the degree of crowding. A meta-analysis of 135 valuations is reported, finding the valuations to vary with load factor, journey purpose and flow type. The seating multiplier averages 1.15 for load factors between 60% and 100% and almost 1.5 for load factors in excess of 100%. The standing multiplier averages 2.35. The latter is very much in line with widely used multipliers applied to walking and waiting time. The most recent evidence is based around the number of passengers per square meter, thereby providing a more accurate measure of the discomfort of standing since, unlike load factor, it allows for the layout of the carriage and ease with which crowding can be accommodated. As far as methodology is concerned, and drawing upon previous experiences, the paper addresses issues of realism in presenting crowding in SP experiments, non-linearities in the relationship between crowding multipliers and the level of crowding, and probabilistic versus deterministic representations of crowding. Future areas for research are identified.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Wardman, Mark
  • Whelan, Gerard
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2010-1-10 to 2010-1-14
• Date: 2010

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 89th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crowds; Lessons learned; Light rail transit; Passenger transportation; Public transit; Railroad transportation; Ridership; Travel surveys; Waiting time
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• Subject Areas: Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Railroads; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01154959
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 10-2011
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Apr 21 2010 8:09AM