IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/transp/v30y2007i5p477-500.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Optimization of Fare Structure and Service Frequency for Maximum Profitability of Transit Systems

Author

Listed:
  • Steven I.-J. Y. Chien
  • Chuck F. M. Tsai

Abstract

Providing efficient public transportation has been recognized as a potential way of alleviating congestion, improving mobility, mitigating air pollution, and reducing energy consumption. Many people use public transportation systems for their daily commute, while others use different transportation modes (e.g. cars, taxis, carpools, etc.). Inexpensive fares with good transit service encourages ridership, and the resulting revenue may be used to provide better service. Optimization of transit service frequency and its associated fare structure is desirable in order to increase revenue at reasonable transit operating expenditure. The objective of the study reported here is to maximize profit subject to service capacity constraint, while elastic demand is considered. The solution methodology is developed and applied to solve the profit maximization problem in a case study based on Newark, NJ, USA. Numerical results, including optimal solutions and sensitivity analyses, are presented. It is found that an optimal temporal headway and differential fare structure that maximizes total profit for the studied subway system can be efficiently solved.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven I.-J. Y. Chien & Chuck F. M. Tsai, 2007. "Optimization of Fare Structure and Service Frequency for Maximum Profitability of Transit Systems," Transportation Planning and Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(5), pages 477-500, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:transp:v:30:y:2007:i:5:p:477-500
    DOI: 10.1080/03081060701599961
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03081060701599961
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03081060701599961?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Voith, Richard, 1991. "The long-run elasticity of demand for commuter rail transportation," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 360-372, November.
    2. McFadden, Daniel, 1974. "The measurement of urban travel demand," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 303-328, November.
    3. Voith, Richard, 1997. "Fares, Service Levels, and Demographics: What Determines Commuter Rail Ridership in the Long Run?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 176-197, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Huang, Di & Liu, Zhiyuan & Liu, Pan & Chen, Jun, 2016. "Optimal transit fare and service frequency of a nonlinear origin-destination based fare structure," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 1-19.
    2. Sun, S. & Szeto, W.Y., 2019. "Optimal sectional fare and frequency settings for transit networks with elastic demand," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 147-177.
    3. Guo, Qianwen & Sun, Yanshuo & Schonfeld, Paul & Li, Zhongfei, 2021. "Time-dependent transit fare optimization with elastic and spatially distributed demand," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 353-378.
    4. Bing-Zheng Liu & Ying-En Ge & Kai Cao & Xi Jiang & Lingyun Meng & Ding Liu & Yunfeng Gao, 2017. "Optimizing a desirable fare structure for a bus-subway corridor," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, October.

    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. Devajyoti Deka & Thomas Marchwinski, 2014. "The revenue and environmental benefits of new off-peak commuter rail service: the case of the Pascack Valley line in New Jersey," Transportation, Springer, vol. 41(1), pages 157-172, January.
    2. Asensio, J., 2000. "The success story of Spanish suburban railways: determinants of demand and policy implications," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 295-302, October.
    3. Mizutani, Fumitoshi & Uranishi, Shuji, 2020. "An analysis of the inter-effect of structural reforms and rail mode share," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Rahman, Moshiur & Yasmin, Shamsunnahar & Eluru, Naveen, 2019. "Controlling for endogeneity between bus headway and bus ridership: A case study of the Orlando region," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 208-219.
    5. Baum-Snow, Nathaniel & Kahn, Matthew E., 2000. "The effects of new public projects to expand urban rail transit," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2), pages 241-263, August.
    6. Giordani, Paolo & Jacobson, Tor & Schedvin, Erik von & Villani, Mattias, 2014. "Taking the Twists into Account: Predicting Firm Bankruptcy Risk with Splines of Financial Ratios," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 49(4), pages 1071-1099, August.
    7. Stephan Heblich & Stephen J Redding & Daniel M Sturm, 2020. "The Making of the Modern Metropolis: Evidence from London," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 2059-2133.
    8. Magdalena Osinska & Kinga Wasilewska, 2020. "Students’ Attitudes Towards Savings and Investment: The Case of Poland," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(Special 2), pages 1068-1085.
    9. repec:shn:wpaper:2014-02 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Ferdinando Monte & Stephen J. Redding & Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, 2018. "Commuting, Migration, and Local Employment Elasticities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(12), pages 3855-3890, December.
    11. Wong, Maisy, 2010. "The Relationship between Marginal Willingness-to-Pay in the Hedonic and Discrete Choice Models," MPRA Paper 51218, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Frick, Bernd & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Prinz, Joachim, 2010. "Analysing head coach dismissals in the German "Bundesliga" with a mixed logit approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 151-159, January.
    13. Park, Byeong U. & Simar, Léopold & Zelenyuk, Valentin, 2017. "Nonparametric estimation of dynamic discrete choice models for time series data," Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 97-120.
    14. William H. Sandholm, 2005. "Negative Externalities and Evolutionary Implementation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(3), pages 885-915.
    15. Du, Hua & Han, Qi & de Vries, Bauke & Sun, Jun, 2024. "Community solar PV adoption in residential apartment buildings: A case study on influencing factors and incentive measures in Wuhan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 354(PA).
    16. Villas-Boas, Sofia B & Taylor, Rebecca & Krovetz, Hannah, 2016. "Willingness to Pay for Low Water Footprint Food Choices During Drought," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt9vh3x180, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.
    17. Jasper Grashuis & Theodoros Skevas & Michelle S. Segovia, 2020. "Grocery Shopping Preferences during the COVID-19 Pandemic," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-10, July.
    18. Thomas Bauer & Gil Epstein & Ira Gang, 2005. "Enclaves, language, and the location choice of migrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 18(4), pages 649-662, November.
    19. Karantininis, Kostas, 2002. "Information-based estimators for the non-stationary transition probability matrix: an application to the Danish pork industry," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 107(1-2), pages 275-290, March.
    20. Ju-Hee Kim & Younggew Kim & Seung-Hoon Yoo, 2021. "Using a choice experiment to explore the public willingness to pay for the impacts of improving energy efficiency of an apartment," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 55(5), pages 1775-1793, October.
    21. Deka, Devajyoti & Carnegie, Jon, 2021. "Predicting transit mode choice of New Jersey workers commuting to New York City from a stated preference survey," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    More about this item

    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:taf:transp:v:30:y:2007:i:5:p:477-500. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GTPT20 .

    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.