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Feeder-trunk or direct lines? Economies of density, transfer costs and transit structure in an urban context

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  • Gschwender, Antonio
  • Jara-Díaz, Sergio
  • Bravo, Claudia

Abstract

A feeder-trunk scheme has been labeled as superior in urban areas due to the presence of economies of density (decreasing average operating cost) along the avenues served by trunk lines. We compare this structure against three types of direct lines structures (no transfers) to serve a stylized public transport network where several flows converge into a main avenue, simultaneously optimizing fleet and vehicle sizes considering both users’ and operators’ costs. The best structure is shown to depend not only on the total passenger volume but also on demand imbalance, demand dispersion in the origins and the length of the trunk line. The region where the feeder-trunk structure dominates depends largely on the value assigned to the pure transfer penalty.

Suggested Citation

  • Gschwender, Antonio & Jara-Díaz, Sergio & Bravo, Claudia, 2016. "Feeder-trunk or direct lines? Economies of density, transfer costs and transit structure in an urban context," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 209-222.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:transa:v:88:y:2016:i:c:p:209-222
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tra.2016.03.001
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    Cited by:

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    4. Fielbaum, Andrés & Jara-Diaz, Sergio & Gschwender, Antonio, 2016. "Optimal public transport networks for a general urban structure," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 298-313.
    5. Proboste, Francisco & Muñoz, Juan Carlos & Gschwender, Antonio, 2020. "Comparing social costs of public transport networks structured around an Open and Closed BRT corridor in medium sized cities," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 187-212.
    6. Andrés Fielbaum & Sergio Jara-Díaz & Antonio Gschwender, 2018. "Transit Line Structures in a General Parametric City: The Role of Heuristics," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(5), pages 1092-1105, October.
    7. Garcia-Martinez, Andres & Cascajo, Rocio & Jara-Diaz, Sergio R. & Chowdhury, Subeh & Monzon, Andres, 2018. "Transfer penalties in multimodal public transport networks," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 52-66.
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    11. Andrés Fielbaum & Sergio Jara-Diaz & Antonio Gschwender, 2017. "A Parametric Description of Cities for the Normative Analysis of Transport Systems," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 343-365, June.
    12. Jara-Diaz, Sergio & Monzon, Andres & Cascajo, Rocio & Garcia-Martinez, Andres, 2022. "An international time equivalency of the pure transfer penalty in urban transit trips: Closing the gap," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 48-55.
    13. Fielbaum, Andrés & Jara-Diaz, Sergio & Gschwender, Antonio, 2021. "Lines spacing and scale economies in the strategic design of transit systems in a parametric city," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. Umberto Petruccelli & Antonello Racina, 2021. "Feeder-trunk and direct-link schemes for public transit: a model to evaluate the produced accessibility," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 301-323, June.
    15. Weckström, Christoffer & Kujala, Rainer & Mladenović, Miloš N. & Saramäki, Jari, 2019. "Assessment of large-scale transitions in public transport networks using open timetable data: case of Helsinki metro extension," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-1.
    16. Jara-Díaz, Sergio R. & Muñoz-Paulsen, Esteban, 2022. "Lessons from the strategic design of a bimodal public transport system on a linear city," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    17. Daniel Hörcher & Daniel J. Graham, 2021. "The Gini index of demand imbalances in public transport," Transportation, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 2521-2544, October.
    18. Calabrò, Giovanni & Araldo, Andrea & Oh, Simon & Seshadri, Ravi & Inturri, Giuseppe & Ben-Akiva, Moshe, 2023. "Adaptive transit design: Optimizing fixed and demand responsive multi-modal transportation via continuous approximation," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    19. Sergio Jara-Díaz & Antonio Gschwender & Claudia Bravo, 2018. "Total cost minimizing transit route structures considering trips towards CBD and periphery," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(6), pages 1701-1720, November.
    20. Giovanni Calabro' & Andrea Araldo & Simon Oh & Ravi Seshadri & Giuseppe Inturri & Moshe Ben-Akiva, 2021. "Adaptive Transit Design: Optimizing Fixed and Demand Responsive Multi-Modal Transportation via Continuous Approximation," Papers 2112.14748, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2023.
    21. Traut, Elizabeth J. & Steinfeld, Aaron, 2019. "Identifying commonly used and potentially unsafe transit transfers with crowdsourcing," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 99-111.
    22. Zakharenko, Roman & Luttmann, Alexander, 2023. "Downsizing the jet: A forecast of economic effects of increased automation in aviation," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 25-47.

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