The Hangover: Assessing Impact of Major Service Interruptions on Urban Rail Transit Ridership

2017 ◽  
Vol 2648 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-85
Author(s):  
Julene Paul ◽  
Michael J. Smart
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Hurricane Sandy ◽  
Urban Rail Transit ◽  
Rail Transit ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Service Interruptions ◽  
Transit Ridership ◽  
Transit Agencies

Driven by several factors, transit ridership has increased dramatically in some major U.S. urban areas over the past several years. Developing accurate econometric models of system ridership growth will help transit agencies plan for future capacity. As major weather events and maintenance issues can affect transit systems and have large impacts on the trajectory of ridership growth, this study examined the effect of major and minor service interruptions on the PATH heavy rail transit system in northern New Jersey and New York City. The study, which used PATH ridership data as well as data on weather, economic conditions, and fares for both PATH and competing services, concluded that Hurricane Sandy likely dampened ridership gains. Other major service interruptions, which lasted only hours or days, had little effect on long-term ridership growth. Suggestions for further study of service interruptions, especially in the face of climate change and resiliency issues in coastal regions, are presented.

scholarly journals A Data-Efficient Approach for Evacuation Demand Generation and Dissipation Prediction in Urban Rail Transit System

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 9692
Author(s):  
Xiaoqing Dai ◽  
Han Qiu ◽  
Lijun Sun
Keyword(s):  
Historical Data ◽  
Urban Rail Transit ◽  
Mathematical Representation ◽  
Natural State ◽  
Rail Transit ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Efficient Approach ◽  
Demand Prediction ◽  
Urban Rail

Predicting evacuation demand, including its generation and dissipation process, for urban rail transit systems under disruptions, such as line and station closure, often requires comprehensive historical data recorded under homogeneous situations. However, data under disruptions are hard to collect due to various reasons, which makes traditional methods impractical in evacuation demand prediction. To address this problem from the modeling perspective, we develop a data-efficient approach to predict evacuation demand for urban rail transit systems under disruptions. Our model-based approach mainly uses historical data obtained from the natural state, when no shocks take place. We first formulate the mathematical representation of the evacuation demand for every type of urban rail transit station. Input variables in this step are location features related to the station under the disruption, as well as an origin–destination matrix under the natural state. Then, based on these mathematical expressions, we develop a simulation system to imitate the spatio-temporal evolution of evacuation demand within the whole network under disruptions. The transport capacity drop under disruptions is used to describe the disruption situation. Several typical scenarios from the Shanghai metro network are used as examples to implement the proposed method. The results show that our method is able to predict the generation and dissipation processes of evacuation demand, as well model how severely stations will be affected by given disruptions. One general observation we draw from the results is that the most vulnerable stations under disruption, where the locations peak evacuation demand occurs, are mainly turn-back stations, closed stations, and the transfer stations near closed stations. This paper provides new insight into evacuation demand prediction under disruptions. It could be used by transport authorities to better respond to the urban rail transit system disruption.

Understanding Stray Current Mitigation, Testing and Maintenance on DC Powered Rail Transit Systems

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saud Memon
Keyword(s):  
Current Control ◽  
Design Criteria ◽  
Light Rail ◽  
Rail Transit ◽  
Stray Current ◽  
Soil Resistivity ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Transit Systems ◽  
Testing Procedures ◽  
Transit Agencies

All direct current traction power systems using rails for return of traction current have a level of current leakage. This leakage of current is dependent on both design and operating factors affecting the efficiency of the rail return path and is referred to as stray current. Stray currents have been detected since the first electric railways were placed into operation during the latter half of the nineteenth century and have serious effects on utility structures and the neighboring infrastructure at large. Stray currents can create safety hazards thereby rendering the design of stray current mitigation an important element of the overall design of a rail transit system. Like any other design/construction project, a baseline survey is an important and significant step in the data collection and fact finding process for a light rail system. Such a survey would aid in finding the soil resistivity data and the results of the stray current levels on existing buried metal utilities. Similarly defining the design criteria for stray current mitigation, monitoring, and testing for a new light rail design project is also important. Most of the design criteria for the older rail transit systems have been developed as an aftermath of the corrosion problem and/or after the design of new extension to the system. Some older transit systems still do not have a specified design or mitigation criteria for stray current, and corrosion issues are handled as they surface and are prioritized based on severity. In the absence of guidelines, it is hard to understand the reasoning behind the limiting criteria suggested in the transit agency manuals particularly when there is no record of testing or soil resistivity investigation. For these older transit systems the limiting criterion was developed based on the information from other transit services. Having applicable design criteria for stray current control and mitigation will help standardize the process for the transit and will lower the cost of mitigation. This paper has been written by a Civil Engineer with an effort to understand the source and the scientific reasoning behind the limiting values suggested by the transit agencies associated with stray current testing procedures and its control. In order to understand the limited stray current corrosion criteria and the respective testing, various transit agencies were interviewed. These interviews were supplemented by a thorough review of the respective transit agency criteria manual/guidelines (where such information was available and accessible). Critical evaluations of the testing procedures were conducted to analyze if these tests and mitigation methods were effective.

Transit Planning Optimization Under Ride-Hailing Competition and Traffic Congestion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keji Wei ◽  
Vikrant Vaze ◽  
Alexandre Jacquillat
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Public Transit ◽  
Mixed Integer ◽  
Nonlinear Program ◽  
Transit Planning ◽  
Planning Optimization ◽  
Transit Ridership ◽  
Transit Agencies

With the soaring popularity of ride-hailing, the interdependence between transit ridership, ride-hailing ridership, and urban congestion motivates the following question: can public transit and ride-hailing coexist and thrive in a way that enhances the urban transportation ecosystem as a whole? To answer this question, we develop a mathematical and computational framework that optimizes transit schedules while explicitly accounting for their impacts on road congestion and passengers’ mode choice between transit and ride-hailing. The problem is formulated as a mixed integer nonlinear program and solved using a bilevel decomposition algorithm. Based on computational case study experiments in New York City, our optimized transit schedules consistently lead to 0.4%–3% system-wide cost reduction. This amounts to rush-hour savings of millions of dollars per day while simultaneously reducing the costs to passengers and transportation service providers. These benefits are driven by a better alignment of available transportation options with passengers’ preferences—by redistributing public transit resources to where they provide the strongest societal benefits. These results are robust to underlying assumptions about passenger demand, transit level of service, the dynamics of ride-hailing operations, and transit fare structures. Ultimately, by explicitly accounting for ride-hailing competition, passenger preferences, and traffic congestion, transit agencies can develop schedules that lower costs for passengers, operators, and the system as a whole: a rare win–win–win outcome.

scholarly journals Overview of Anti-Seismic Researches of Underground Structures

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 03038
Author(s):  
Ran Liao
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Underground Structure ◽  
Seismic Damage ◽  
Urban Rail Transit ◽  
Rail Transit ◽  
Underground Structures ◽  
Transit System ◽  
Urban Rail ◽  
Subway System ◽  
Metro System

With the vigorous development of urban rail transit system, especially the construction of subway system, the safety of subway system draws more and more attention. The study of anti-seismic for underground structures has also become an important problem to be solved in the construction of Metro system. Based on the typical underground structure seismic damage phenomenon, this paper summarizes the seismic characteristics, research methods and design methods of underground structures to offer a guide for engineers.

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