IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/kaunek/0010.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Modeling Passenger Train Delay Distributions - Evidence and Implications

Author

Listed:
  • Bergström, Anna

    (Dept. of Economics)

  • Krüger, Niclas

    (Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute)

Abstract

This paper addresses the lack of reliability within the Swedish rail network by identifying passenger train delay distributions. Arrival delays are analyzed in detail using data provided by the Swedish Transport Administration, covering all train departures and arrivals during 2008 and 2009. The paper identifies vulnerabilities by size, space and time in the network. Our results show that the delay distribution seems to be plagued by low probability high impact events. A major share of all delay time is associated with the tail of the delay distribution, indicating that extreme delays cannot be neglected when prioritizing between measures improving rail infrastructure. Delays are not only concentrated in size, but also concentrated in space and time and seem to follow a precise power law with respect to days and an exponential distribution with regard to stations. Moreover, we also examine the link between capacity usage and expected delay over different time scales.

Suggested Citation

  • Bergström, Anna & Krüger, Niclas, 2013. "Modeling Passenger Train Delay Distributions - Evidence and Implications," Karlstad University Working Papers in Economics 10, Karlstad University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:kaunek:0010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.kau.se/sites/default/files/Dokument/subpage/2012/02/2013_10_pdf_30053.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carrion, Carlos & Levinson, David, 2012. "Value of travel time reliability: A review of current evidence," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 720-741.
    2. Berdica, Katja, 2002. "An introduction to road vulnerability: what has been done, is done and should be done," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 117-127, April.
    3. Paulley, Neil & Balcombe, Richard & Mackett, Roger & Titheridge, Helena & Preston, John & Wardman, Mark & Shires, Jeremy & White, Peter, 2006. "The demand for public transport: The effects of fares, quality of service, income and car ownership," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4), pages 295-306, July.
    4. A. Higgins & E. Kozan, 1998. "Modeling Train Delays in Urban Networks," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(4), pages 346-357, November.
    5. van Loon, Ruben & Rietveld, Piet & Brons, Martijn, 2011. "Travel-time reliability impacts on railway passenger demand: a revealed preference analysis," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 917-925.
    6. Börjesson, Maria & Eliasson, Jonas, 2011. "On the use of "average delay" as a measure of train reliability," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 171-184, March.
    7. Rietveld, P. & Bruinsma, F. R. & van Vuuren, D. J., 2001. "Coping with unreliability in public transport chains: A case study for Netherlands," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 35(6), pages 539-559, July.
    8. Stefanie Peer & Carl Koopmans & Erik T. Verhoef, 2010. "Predicting Travel Time Variability for Cost-Benefit Analysis," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 10-071/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    9. Bates, John & Polak, John & Jones, Peter & Cook, Andrew, 0. "The valuation of reliability for personal travel," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 191-229, April.
    10. Briggs, Keith & Beck, Christian, 2007. "Modelling train delays with q-exponential functions," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 378(2), pages 498-504.
    11. F.R. Bruinsma & P. Rietveld & D.J. van Vuuren, 1999. "Unreliability in Public Transport Chains," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 98-130/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Paul Koster & Eric Pels & Erik Verhoef, 2016. "The User Costs of Air Travel Delay Variability," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(1), pages 120-131, February.
    2. Gu, Yu & Fu, Xiao & Liu, Zhiyuan & Xu, Xiangdong & Chen, Anthony, 2020. "Performance of transportation network under perturbations: Reliability, vulnerability, and resilience," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    3. Peer, Stefanie & Knockaert, Jasper & Verhoef, Erik T., 2016. "Train commuters’ scheduling preferences: Evidence from a large-scale peak avoidance experiment," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 314-333.
    4. Sjoerd van der Spoel & Chintan Amrit & Jos van Hillegersberg, 2017. "Predictive analytics for truck arrival time estimation: a field study at a European distribution centre," International Journal of Production Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(17), pages 5062-5078, September.
    5. Bardal, Kjersti Granås & Mathisen, Terje Andreas, 2015. "Winter problems on mountain passes – Implications for cost-benefit analysis," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 59-72.
    6. de Jong, Gerard C. & Bliemer, Michiel C.J., 2015. "On including travel time reliability of road traffic in appraisal," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 80-95.
    7. Blayac, Thierry & Stéphan, Maïté, 2021. "Are retrospective rail punctuality indicators useful? Evidence from users perceptions," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 193-213.
    8. Feixiong Liao & Bert van Wee, 2017. "Accessibility measures for robustness of the transport system," Transportation, Springer, vol. 44(5), pages 1213-1233, September.
    9. Jenelius, Erik & Mattsson, Lars-Göran & Levinson, David, 2011. "Traveler delay costs and value of time with trip chains, flexible activity scheduling and information," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 789-807, June.
    10. Eric Kroes & Paul R. Koster & Stefanie Peer, 2014. "A Practical Method to estimate the Benefits of Improved Network Reliability: An Application to Departing Air Passengers," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 14-130/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    11. Alejandro Tirachini & David Hensher & Michiel Bliemer, 2014. "Accounting for travel time variability in the optimal pricing of cars and buses," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(5), pages 947-971, September.
    12. Mengying Cui & David Levinson, 2018. "Accessibility analysis of risk severity," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 1029-1050, July.
    13. Chica-Olmo, Jorge & Gachs-Sánchez, Héctor & Lizarraga, Carmen, 2018. "Route effect on the perception of public transport services quality," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 40-48.
    14. Engelson, Leonid & Fosgerau, Mogens, 2016. "The cost of travel time variability: Three measures with properties," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 555-564.
    15. Tu, Huizhao & Li, Hao & van Lint, Hans & van Zuylen, Henk, 2012. "Modeling travel time reliability of freeways using risk assessment techniques," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1528-1540.
    16. Redman, Lauren & Friman, Margareta & Gärling, Tommy & Hartig, Terry, 2013. "Quality attributes of public transport that attract car users: A research review," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 119-127.
    17. Xiao, Yu & Fukuda, Daisuke, 2015. "On the cost of misperceived travel time variability," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 96-112.
    18. Jenelius, Erik & Mattsson, Lars-Göran, 2012. "Road network vulnerability analysis of area-covering disruptions: A grid-based approach with case study," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(5), pages 746-760.
    19. repec:hal:wpaper:hal-00827972 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Hongcheng Gan & Yang Bai, 2014. "The effect of travel time variability on route choice decision: a generalized linear mixed model based analysis," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(2), pages 339-350, March.
    21. Nicolas Coulombel & André de Palma, 2014. "The marginal social cost of travel time variability," Post-Print hal-01100105, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Delay; Reliability; Passenger trains; Delay distribution; Value of time; Cost-benefit analysis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H54 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Infrastructures
    • R42 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government and Private Investment Analysis; Road Maintenance; Transportation Planning

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:kaunek:0010. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Niklas Jakobsson (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/eikause.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.