Approaches, technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellers

Several studies have pointed to the difficulties of obtaining good data on train ridership. This paper is a literature review on how the number of travellers on trains are measured, including technologies and practices for measuring actual ridership. There are a number of publications and practical...

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Main Authors: Anette Ø. Sørensen, Nils O. E. Olsson, Muhammad Mohsin Akhtar, Heidi Bull-Berg
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2019-01-01
Series:Urban, Planning and Transport Research
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21650020.2019.1566022
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author Anette Ø. Sørensen
Nils O. E. Olsson
Muhammad Mohsin Akhtar
Heidi Bull-Berg
author_facet Anette Ø. Sørensen
Nils O. E. Olsson
Muhammad Mohsin Akhtar
Heidi Bull-Berg
author_sort Anette Ø. Sørensen
collection DOAJ
description Several studies have pointed to the difficulties of obtaining good data on train ridership. This paper is a literature review on how the number of travellers on trains are measured, including technologies and practices for measuring actual ridership. There are a number of publications and practical work done on estimating ridership. We find there are several technologies that can be applied for measuring ridership on trains. The technologies and approaches include (1) Manual counts and surveys, (2) On-board sensors such as door passing, weight, CCTV and Wi-Fi-use, (3) Ticketing systems, ticket sales or ticket validation, and (4) Tracking of travellers for larger part of the journey, e.g. by mobile phones and payments. Data from on-board sensors and ticketing systems are both managed by public transportation providers. By contrast, surveys, payments statistics and mobile phone data may be available to stakeholders outside the public transportation system, which can be an advantage, as access to ridership data can be an issue for business reasons. Furthermore, mobile phone data appears as an interesting option, as they can track complete journeys. New technologies, and especially mobile phone data, are therefore of special interest in future uses of ridership data for evaluations and quality assessments.
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spelling doaj.art-f064697e2c404d46969c43cb39bc3e752022-12-21T18:22:56ZengTaylor & Francis GroupUrban, Planning and Transport Research2165-00202019-01-017111810.1080/21650020.2019.15660221566022Approaches, technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellersAnette Ø. Sørensen0Nils O. E. Olsson1Muhammad Mohsin Akhtar2Heidi Bull-Berg3Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)SINTEF Technology and SocietySeveral studies have pointed to the difficulties of obtaining good data on train ridership. This paper is a literature review on how the number of travellers on trains are measured, including technologies and practices for measuring actual ridership. There are a number of publications and practical work done on estimating ridership. We find there are several technologies that can be applied for measuring ridership on trains. The technologies and approaches include (1) Manual counts and surveys, (2) On-board sensors such as door passing, weight, CCTV and Wi-Fi-use, (3) Ticketing systems, ticket sales or ticket validation, and (4) Tracking of travellers for larger part of the journey, e.g. by mobile phones and payments. Data from on-board sensors and ticketing systems are both managed by public transportation providers. By contrast, surveys, payments statistics and mobile phone data may be available to stakeholders outside the public transportation system, which can be an advantage, as access to ridership data can be an issue for business reasons. Furthermore, mobile phone data appears as an interesting option, as they can track complete journeys. New technologies, and especially mobile phone data, are therefore of special interest in future uses of ridership data for evaluations and quality assessments.http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21650020.2019.1566022railwayridershipnumber of passengerstrainevaluation
spellingShingle Anette Ø. Sørensen
Nils O. E. Olsson
Muhammad Mohsin Akhtar
Heidi Bull-Berg
Approaches, technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellers
Urban, Planning and Transport Research
railway
ridership
number of passengers
train
evaluation
title Approaches, technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellers
title_full Approaches, technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellers
title_fullStr Approaches, technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellers
title_full_unstemmed Approaches, technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellers
title_short Approaches, technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellers
title_sort approaches technologies and importance of analysis of the number of train travellers
topic railway
ridership
number of passengers
train
evaluation
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21650020.2019.1566022
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