Development of a Performance Evaluation Framework for Public Transport Systems

Abstract

Public transport is an important component of a transportation infrastructure and is a sustainable transport solution. It has evolved over the centuries from animal back and animal drawn systems to motor driven system of today. The development has been phenomenal regarding passenger handling capacity, the speed of operations, and system efficiency. It provides economic travel, utilizes fuel efficiently, produces higher passenger-kilometre per unit time, and needs low unit space per passenger for its facilities. Focused efforts have been made by several international organizations to improve transit systems in their respective jurisdictions. Despite these efforts, the public transport modal shares are either going down or remaining stagnant in several countries including India. This is due to the inherent characteristics of the public transport system and the changes in the aspirations of the commuters over time. Research across the globe has observed several possible reasons for the decrease in the transit modal shares. These have consequential impacts on declining ridership. The declining patronage of sustainable transportation like public transport is a worrying factor and needs assessment to arrive at remedial measures.