An estimation of the public transit quality of service based on travel fatigue modeling approach

Abstract The main tasks of the public transit operating are timely and complete satisfaction of transport user’s needs with minimum costs and high level of service. Unsatisfactory level of service causes the discomfort for users. To assess public transit quality of service, a subjective approach is mainly used. This approach makes it possible to determine the interviewees’ opinion regarding travel conditions and to rank the travel factors according to their importance. Taking into account the requirements for accuracy and reliability of the results, an objective approach is more acceptable. In order to apply an objective approach to assessing the public transit quality of service, the well-known methodology for modelling passenger travel fatigue was adapted to solve this task. The specified approach involves the sequential determination of an indicator of the human body functional state changing according to separate travel stages. Based on the characteristics of the passengers’ functional state after commuting and the influence of travel fatigue on the decrease in passenger labour productivity, a ranking of public transit quality of service levels was proposed. In order to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach, the calculation example of its application was considered. The analysis showed that public transit quality of service estimation based on the travel fatigue modelling approach has provided the acceptable results and could be applied to solve the practical tasks.