OPTIMUM HALT SPACING FOR AN URBAN RAIL USED AS

A SCHOOL TRANSPORT MODE

A CASE STUDY IN KANDY


By


E/07/259 POTHUHERA T.M.D.D.B
E/07/404 WILGAMUWA M.M.T.D.B
E/07/418 KURUPPUARACHCHI S.P

Supervised by

Dr. I.M.S SATHYAPRASAD




Project No: C/07/007





Department of Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University of Peradeniya
Peradeniya 20400
Sri Lanka







December 2011
I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First we would like to express our very great appreciation to Dr. I.M.S Sathyaprasad for
offering this project to be carried out under CE 405 and for the great guidance and advices
given all the time since the very first beginning.
Our special thanks are extended to Prof. Sunanda Dissanayake for her guidance and support
given for reference of ASCE papers.
And also we are particularly grateful for the assistance given by Dr. G.S Gurusingha to
maintain the project in the correct path.

26/12/2011 Pothuhera T.M.D.D.B
Wilgamuwa M.M.T.D.B
Kuruppuarachchi S.P

II

ABSTRACT

The main goal of this project is to find the optimum halt spacing for an urban rail which is to
be used as a school transport mode. This project proposal presents some brief details of past
researches which have been carried out in this area. The proposed mathematical model and
the methodology to be followed in optimizing the halt spacing is also presented in the
proposal. Since almost all the researches had an approach of bus stop spacing, relevant
changes had to be made in order to derive this mathematical model and the methodology
suitable for a rail transit mode. According to the methodology, required data should be
collected and analyzed. Then the relevant factors and parameters should be calculated and
applied in the mathematical model. Considering those results optimization will be done for
the required solution of optimum halt spacing.


III

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .......................................................................................................... I
ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................................II
CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. III
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. IV
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... V
1.0 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1
2.0 Literature Survey .................................................................................................................. 2
2.1 Continuum Models ...........................................................................................................2
2.1.1 Continuum Model 1 ...................................................................................................2
2.1.2 Recent continuum model ...........................................................................................4
2.2 Discrete Enumeration Model ............................................................................................5
2.2.1 Set Covering Approach ..............................................................................................5
2.2.2 Stop Location Discrete Analysis Approach ...............................................................5
3.0 Methodology ........................................................................................................................ 6
3.1 Optimization Method ........................................................................................................6
4.0 Cost Estimations ................................................................................................................... 9
4.1 Walking Cost ....................................................................................................................9
4.1.1 Unit Walking Cost ...................................................................................................10
4.1.2 Factored Demand ofSchools ....................................................................................10
4.1.3 Competition Factor ..................................................................................................10
4.2 Ride Cost ........................................................................................................................11
4.3 Operating Cost ................................................................................................................11
4.4 Determining Walking Cost .............................................................................................11
4.5 Determining Operating Cost ...........................................................................................12
4.6 Determining Riding Cost ................................................................................................12
References ................................................................................................................................ 13




IV

LIST OF FIGURES

Fig 3.1(a)Variation of the cost vs No of stops ........................................................................... 8
Fig 3.1(b)Variation of the savings vs No of stops ..................................................................... 8


V

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1- Behaviour of savings with the reduction of stops ..................................................... 7

1

1.0 Introduction

In many urban areas, a significant amount of extra traffic congestion occurs during the school
time (in the morning and afternoon sessions). Therefore transit operators consider this issue,
and come up with various solutions which can be implemented to solve the traffic congestion
in those urban areas, Anyway, if a considerable amount of students can be attracted to
another transit mode like light rail, it is noted that most of the traffic congestions can be
reduced. But it becomes more practical if the rail line is laid within a comfortable walking
distance from schools. Also it should be cost effective for both passenger and operator
parties, otherwise it will not be attracted by the students, So, In order to increase the
operational performance and mainly the cost effectiveness, first the halt spacing for proposed
rail line, should be optimized, Then with a considerable attraction, that rail line can be
implemented. Since a considerable amount of daily passenger demand is shared by this transit
mode , definitely it will be a very practical solution.
In this project, the problem is high traffic congestion in school time. If there is an
existing rail line laid within a comfortable walking distance from majority of schools, the
existing rail line can be converted to a dual rail line, a light rail service basically for the
students can be easily adopted. But the halt spacing of the rail line should be optimized in
order to obtain a cost effective and attractive implementation.

2

2.0 Literature Survey

There are two approaches that have been used in the literature for modeling, analysis, and
optimization of stop spacing: continuous (calculus based) and discrete enumeration models.
These models have both been used for evaluation and optimization of stop spacing in a
variety of settings.

1. Continuum Models
2. Discrete Enumeration Models

2.1 Continuum Models

2.1.1 Continuum Model 1

S C Wirasinghe, N S. Ghoneim, (August 1981), Spacing of Bus-Stops for Many to Many
Travel Demand, Transportation Science, Vol. 15.

Wirasinghe and Ghoneims paper is one of the continuum model presented on stop spacing
optimization. The paper develops an objective function using the total cost composed of
access/egress time, ride time and operating time along a transit route.

Assumptions which had been made

Three components of stop spacing impact
Walk impact
Ride impact
Operating impact

Approximated demand as a function of distance along the route (Demand
discontinuity only at major intersections and transfer stations)
Walk access is assumed to be on an infinitely dense rectilinear grid (Component
perpendicular to the transit line is ignored since it is not affected by stop spacing)
The average walk distance is given as S
x
/4, where S
x
is the stop spacing in the
neighborhood of x
The ride time includes delay to passengers on board the transit vehicle
Stopping Delay is composed of acceleration, deceleration, and door opening and
closing time
Delay due to boarding and alighting passengers is assumed to be independent of the
stop spacing decision and is therefore neglected.






3

If x is the location along the route, optimality conditions in the neighborhood of x lead to,

x
-
= _
(). (
x
y

+ y
b
)
y
w
.



demand Total
cost Unit walk
cost operating Unit
cost ride Unit
at x offs) - s demands(on Cumulative ) (
g tostoppin due Delay ) (
=
=
=
=
=
=
P
x C
x
w
b
r

The stop spacing derivation assumes that people minimize walking time instead of total travel
time which includes walk and ride time. This assumption leads to the result that the stop
shedlines are midway between stops. It is described here in brief detail.

Lets be the spacing between two consecutive stops, and let V
w
, C
w
, V
r
, C
r
speed and cost for
walking and riding respectively. Then the indifference point is shown to be,

=

w
]

Where y is the distance from the midpoint of the spacing measured from the downstream
stop. Its value, greater than S/2, shows that minimizes a combination of walk and ride time
leads to shedlines that are generally shifted back towards the upstream stop. For certain
values of the parameters, shedlines may be shifted as much as one third of the way from the
upstream stop.

This model is based on optimizing bus stop spacing. It is also insensitive to the actual
demand distribution as it assumes that demand is uniformly distributed over each segment.
As the boarding and alighting delays at each stop are excluded from the analysis also the
effect of dwell times on through riders is not considered. The effect of this delay may be
significant in places where the demand is high.







4

2.1.2 Recent continuum model

R van Nes, P H L Bovy, (2000), The importance of objectives in urban transit network
design, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research
Board, Volume 1735.

Van Nes use a continuum model for both line spacing and stop spacing optimization. The
network formulation for all the objectives includes stop spacing (D
s
) and line spacing (D
l
). D
s
was deemed the most important objective if the relationship between D
1
and D
s
is not
considered.

When stop spacing is analyzed independent of line spacing(making D
s
is the only decision
variable),they derive optimality conditions for stop spacing formula for minimizing total
costs with fixed demand is given as,

x
-
= _

u
_
.
o
.

+
c
]

factor Access
access of Weight
factor cost Ridetime
demand passenger Fixed
factor cost Operating
service of Frequency
stop a at Lost time
length Route
speed Access
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
=
a
a
t
o
s
c
a
f
W
C
P
C
F
T
D
V


Van Nes assumed that time spent at a stop is constant regardless of the number of stops that
are present, thereby making it independent of demand. As the spacing increases demand is
considered to be accommodated by increased transit boarding and alighting capacity. Van
Nes comes up with a similar formula as WirasingheandGhoneim but without distinguishing
the demand profile.







5

2.2 Discrete Enumeration Model

There are two approaches in discrete enumeration model

1. Set covering approach
2. Stop Location Discrete Analysis Approach


2.2.1 Set Covering Approach

Set covering is used in mathematics and complexity theory to compare two or more sets and
find the set that will represent all of them with the minimum number of members.

Application of set covering in transportation involves finding the minimum number of
stops required to cover a given area
The area covered could be modeled as another set of points or area centroids which
would be served (covered) by the respective nearest stop
Due to the exponential nature of the running time with respect to the problem size,
this approach is not very attractive

It is possible to formulate set covering problem in either a discrete or continuous analysis. So
the approach has been investigated by mathematicians and operations researchers.Tofinds the
optimal location of stops along public transportation routes (mainly railways) in Europe.

The methods may employ graph theory and/or matrix and optimization theory to formulate
algorithms that are used to solve the prescribed set covering problem.

The goal of the method is to minimize the time it takes to completely serve the set of demand
centers while at the same time reducing the cost of the operation.


2.2.2 Stop Location Discrete Analysis Approach

This is a kind of discrete treatment that has been applied to a transit stop location problem in
the research, done by Furth P G and Rahbee A B for'Optimal Bus Stop Spacing Through
Dynamic Programming and Geographic Modeling' in 2000.

Here, approach is discrete to model the impacts of changing bus-stop spacing on the total cost
which is composed of walking time parallel to the transit line, riding time with discrete
cumulative ons and offs throughout the route and operating time that computes stopping
delay with a stochastic component.

Demands from the main street and parallel street are treated as distributed demands, and
those from the cross streets and transfers are treated as concentrated loads.

By this approach quite complex demand distribution can be handled properly.

6

3.0 Methodology
3.1 Optimization Method
Although there is no existing rail line for this case, it is assumed that there is a rail line and
there are halts near each and every school.
Then, the Total cost per day is calculated by summing up walking cost, riding cost and
operating cost for this transit mode.
Next the halt with lowest demand (lowest value among the target populations taken from
each school) is removed and then the saving is calculated which is obtained from the total
cost (saving can be a minus or a plus value)
Considering that saving value, above step is repeated until the saving becomes a maximum
value.
In this procedure remaining halts become close to the major demands and the walking
distance may become uncomfortable for low demands.
In order to justify those issues, an interpolation can be introduced.
Finally the savings are quantified and checked whether it is still maximum.
If it is maximum, this selection is chosen otherwise the previous selection is chosen.
Here, two kinds of journeys are considered.
1. Morning session (home to school)
2. Afternoon session (School to home)
Here in this case, home end is a particular end which is common for every student.
First these sessions are analyzedseparately, similar example table is given below,










7

All day cost summery
Table 3.1- Behaviour of savings with the reduction of stops




Number
of Stops
Walk
cost/Rs
Ride
cost/Rs
Operating
cost/Rs
Total
cost/Rs
Savings/day
All halts 15 11000 21000 34000 66000

Minus Halt No.1 14 13000 17000 31000 61000 5000
Minus Halt No.2 14 18000 19000 30000 67000 -1000
Minus Halt No.3 14 12000 19000 29000 60000 4000
Minus Halt No.4 14 15000 20000 30000 65000 1000
Minus Halt No.5 14 13500 20500 31000 65000 1000
Minus Halt No.6 14 19000 19500 29000 67500 -1500
Minus Halt No.7 14 20000 18500 29500 68000 -2000
Minus Halt No.8 14 19500 20000 30500 70000 -4000
Minus Halt No.9 13 13500 15000 27000 55500 10500
Minus Halt No.1
& No.3
11 17000 18000 25000 60000 6000
Minus Halt No.1,
No.3 & No.4
12 14300 13200 25300 52800 13200


8

The behavior of riding cost, walking cost, operating cost & the total cost with no of stops, can
be hypothetically shown as below.





At that optimum value, saving becomes maximum.



Ride cost
Operator cost
Total cost
Walk cost
No of stops
C
o
s
t
Optimum point
No of stops
C
o
s
t
Savings
No of stops
S
a
v
i
n
g
s
Fig 3.1(a)Variation of the cost vs No of stops
Fig 3.1(b)Variation of the savings vs No of stops
9

4.0 Cost Estimations

In this project mainly three costs are considered. They are,
1. Riding cost
2. Walking cost
3. Operating cost
Each of these costs has to be estimated.
Since passengers and the operators time is also a cost, this costs are considered and defined
with time parameters.
Several assumptions are made when estimating these costs.

4.1 Walking Cost

Total walking cost can be determined as,

]
= (

I
]
)


Equation 4.1

where, Ctw
j
is Total walking cost for halt j (Rupees), Df
i
is Factored demand of school i
(passengers), Lw
ij
is walking distance between i-j (metres) and Cuw is unit walking cost
(Rupees/metres.passengers)

Here several assumptions are made.
Walking distance is considered from the main gate of the school i to the halt j
Students always choose the shortest path to reach the particular halt
Walking speed is averaged
Every student has the same unit waling cost




10

4.1.1 Unit Walking Cost

Unit walking cost can be determined as,


= p
ug



Equation 4.1.1

Where, Cuw is unit walking cost (Rupees/metres.passenger), Cupt is cost per unit time per
person (rupees/min.passenger) and Vw
avg
is average walking velocity of passenger
(metres/min).

4.1.2 Factored Demand ofSchools

Factored demand of schools can be described as,

= c


Equation 4.1.2

Where,Df
i
is factored demand of school i, Fc is competition factor and P is population.

4.1.3 Competition Factor

Demand from a school for a particular halt can be affected by competition from other transit
modes (E.g.- School vans, Busses, Private cars, etc.)
That impact can be calculated by introducing a factor.
For this purpose if the past data available, those data can be used, otherwise a survey
can be arranged to get to know the attitudes of the students for the transit modes. By those
data above factor can be obtained.






11

4.2 Ride Cost

Ride cost can be described as,


r = ( + + o) p


Equation 4.2

Where, Crt is total ride cost, Tw is walking time (min/passenger), Td is dwell time
(min/passenger), To is operating time (min/passenger) and Cupt is cost per unit time per
person (rupees/min.passenger).
It is assumed that, riding time begins just after the passenger reaches the halt.

4.3 Operating Cost

Operating cost can be described as,


o =
ug

Io
o
ug
+


Equation 4.3

Where, Co is operating cost, L
o
is operating length (metres), 3Cu
avg
is average unit operating
cost of train (rupees/min), Vto
avg
is average train operation speed (metres/min) and Td is dwell
time. Here, average unit operating cost is considered as same as in both dwell time and ride
time.


4.4 Determining Walking Cost
Unit walking cost of a passenger is considered to be influenced by the factors described
below,
Gradient of the road
Environmental condition
Safety and security
Condition of the access path(paved/unpaved)
Walking distance
Sceneries met during walking
Types of belongings carried
Attitude
12

Unit walking cost for students is to be derived considering above factors and the
methodologies which have been carried out in past researches done for similar cases.

4.5 Determining Operating Cost
Fuel cost
Operators cost
Maintenance and repairing cost
Here, by considering the CGR databases and past researches the required value for this
operating cost can be obtained.

4.6 Determining Riding Cost
Since it has been assumed that Cost per unit time per person is same in both walking time and
riding time, once the value in finding walking time is obtained, it can be used in finding
riding cost too.

According to the above mathematical model, methodology and the definitions, the project
will be proceeded and the optimum goal is to find the optimum halt spacing for a proper rail
transit implementation.










13

References

S C Wirasinghe, N S Ghoneim, (August 1981), Spacing of Bus-Stops for Many to Many
Travel Demand, TransportationScience, Volume 15.

Maaza Christos Mekuria, (January 01,2009), Bus stop spacing optimization on a realistic
street network, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern
University.

Trun Shaw CHU, (2005), Optimal Headway And Route Length For a Public Transit System
Under The Consideration of Externality, Journal of the Eastern Asia Society for
Transportation Studies, Volume 6.

R. van Nes, P H LBovy, (2000), The importance of objectives in urban transit network
design, Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board,
Volume 1735.

Furth P G, Rahbee A B, (2000), 'Optimal Bus Stop Spacing Through Dynamic Programming
and Geographic Modeling', Transportation Research Record, Voulume 1731.

Chang S K, Schonfeld P M, (1993), Optimum Dimensions of Bus Service Zones, Journal of
Transportation Engineering, ASCE, Volume 119.