Impacts of the Introduction of an Express Transit Service in Waterloo Region

Public transportation;iXpress service;Fuel consumption;Green House Gas emissions;Passenger attraction;The Region of Waterloo;Civil Engineering

Farahani, Samira

University of Waterloo

关键词: Public transportation;    iXpress service;    Fuel consumption;    Green House Gas emissions;    Passenger attraction;    The Region of Waterloo;    Civil Engineering;   

Others  :  https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/3469/1/MSc%20Thesis-Samira%20Farahani.pdf

瑞士|英语

来源: UWSPACE Waterloo Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

For more than a century, public transportation has played a significant role in society. Transitagencies, like other service industries, are intent on improving their quality of service so as toincrease transit ridership and attract passengers from other modes. In recent yearstransportation technologies have been improved which increase safety, mobility for peopleand goods, and reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. An evaluation of the impacts ofthese operational and technological advancements is required for transit agencies to capturethe potential benefits for their systems.The Region Municipality of Waterloo (RMOW), a mid-size region in Ontario hasimplemented an express transit service (iXpress) in Sept, 2005. The service has longerdistances between stops and incorporates advanced technologies. The goal is to increasetransit ridership and, as a result, to reduce GHG emissions.This research has been conducted to study the iXpress service and to develop severalmethods to determine the impacts of high speed transit service on passenger attraction,operational efficiency, and regional air quality. In this research, the change in total cost oftravel between origin destination pairs is correlated to changes in observed ridership.Further, several surveys were conducted in the RMOW to evaluate the travel pattern changesof residents who switched from other modes to iXpress. Based on fuel consumption data, amodel of GHG emissions as a function of route and vehicle characteristics has beendeveloped to capture the operational impacts of a new iXpress service.The iXpress service of Grand River Transit (GRT) has been successful in attracting ridersdespite delays in technology implementation. The cost analysis presented in this researchshows that the introduction of iXpress resulted in approximately 30% reduction in overallcost of travel by transit. As a result, ridership (boardings) has increased by 11% and 46% in the northern and southern sections of the iXpress service area respectively, while accountingfor overall growth in the system. An analysis of travel patterns and mode shifts suggest thattravelers switching from auto mode to iXpress have resulted in annualized reduction ofapproximately 530 tonnes of GHG. A fuel consumption analysis indicates that buses on theiXpress route have an average fuel consumption rate of 0.54 L/km while, buses serving localroute consumes fuel of a rate of 0.62 L/km.