Transport System Optimization And Pricing

This book is one of the first to include an extensive discussion of integrated public transport planning. In times of growing urban populations and increasing environmental awareness, the importance of optimizing public transport systems is ever-developing. Three different aspects are presented: line planning, timetabling, and vehicle scheduling. Classically, challenges concerning these three aspects of planning are solved sequentially. Due to their high interdependence, the author presents a clear and detailed analysis of innovative, integrated models with accompanied numerical experiments performed to assess, and often support, the benefits of integration. The book will appeal to a wide readership ranging from graduate students to researchers.

Taking a comprehensive approach to two central, closely intertwined themes in the field of transport economics, this illuminating Handbook recognizes the critical socioeconomic importance of transport pricing and financing.

This book contains selected papers from the presentations given at the 7th EURO-Working Group Meeting on 'Iransportation, which took place at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT), Finland, during August 2-4, 1999. Altogether 31 presentations were given and 14 full papers have been selected in this publication through a peer review process coordinated by the editors. The papers in this book cover a wide range of transportation problems from the simulation of railway traffic to optimum congestion tolling and mode choice modeling with stated preference data. In general, the variety of papers clearly demonstrates the wide areas of interest of people who are involved in the research of transportation systems and their operation. They as well demonstrate the importance and possibilities of modeling and theoretical approaches in the analysis of transportation systems and problem solving. Most of the papers are purely theoretical in nature, that is, they present a theoretical model with only a hypothetical example of applica tion. There are, however, some papers, which are closer to the practice or describe applications of and give interesting results of studies made by known methodologies. It is especially noteworthy, that half of the accepted papers deal with planning and operation of public transport.

Part II. A case study : the optimization of the Dutch road network.

This book develops models, results and algorithms for optimizing public transportation from a customer-oriented viewpoint. The methods used are based on graph-theoretic approaches and integer programming. The specific topics are all motivated by real-world examples which occurred in practical projects: location of stops, management of delay, and tariff zone design. An appendix summarizes some of the basics of optimization needed to interpret the material in the book.

Transport economics and policy analysis is a field which has seen major advances in methodology in recent decades, covering issues such as estimating cost functions, modelling of demand, dealing with externalities, examining industry ownership and structure, pricing and investment decisions and measuring economic impacts. This Handbook contains reviews of all these methods, with an emphasis on practical applications, commissioned from an international cast of experts in the field.