Antonio Gschwender

The merits of selected heuristics to obtain transit line structures are analyzed, applying them on a synthetic parametric description of a symmetric city that allows representation of different city types (mostly monocentric, polycentric, or dispersed) and varying number of trips. Predetermined basic strategic designs are used as references for comparison considering operators and users costs. We show that (a) line structures that emerge from heuristics dominate the comparison for most types of cities; (b) these line structures are of the direct type; (c) the virtues of a heuristic depend on the level and, most importantly, the spatial structure of transport demand; and (d) new types of heuristics should take into account the structural characteristics of cities, allowing for potential non-direct-type solutions. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2018.0833 .

Purpose — The introduction of new technology to public transport systems has provided an excellent opportunity for passive data collection. In this paper, we explore the possibility of automatically generating level of service indicators that could be used for operation planning and monitoring of Transantiago, the public transport system of Santiago, Chile. Design/methodology/approach — After basic processing of the raw automatic vehicle location (AVL) and automatic fare collection (AFC) data, we were able to generate bus speed indicators, travel time measurements and waiting time estimates using data from 1week. The results were compared with manual measures when available. Findings — The advantage is that these measurements and estimates are reliable because they are obtained from large samples and at nearly no cost. Moreover, they can be applied to any set of data with a selected periodicity. Research limitations — The scope of this research is limited to what can be observed with AVL and AFC data. Additional information is required to incorporate other dimensions, such as personal characteristics and/or more detail in the origin/destination (OD) of the trips. Practical implications — Nevertheless, these results are valuable for the planning and operation management of public transport systems because they provide large amounts of information that is difficult and expensive to obtain from direct measurements. Originality/value — This paper proposes tools to obtain valuable information at a low cost. These tools can be implemented in many cities that have certain technological devices incorporated into their public transport systems.