Posts tagged cost benefit analysis

Sustainable urban development with LRT: Lessons from Netherlands and Japan

Possibilities for the application of Light Rail Transit (LRT – light rail, tramway) as high-quality public transport in cities, urban regions are countless. Our article opens with the question about the specific characteristics of LRT. Then the question is asked which comprehensive argumentation LRT projects can justify. Finally, we examine the question of how these types of projects can be realized. Each of these three questions – What? Why? How? – is addressed on the basis of a set with two LRT main cases, respectively from the Netherlands and Japan.

Read the full article by Rob vd Bijl, Kiyohito Utsunomiya and Niels van Oort HERE

Impacts of replacing a fixed transit line by a Demand Responsive Transit system

The diffusion of the smartphone and the urban sprawl is pushing both private and public actors to revisit the concept of the demand-responsive transit (DRT). Mokumflex is a DRT pilot program that replaced the regular bus service in low-density areas of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, for 12 months. The close collaboration with the private enterprise that conducted the system but also with the local bus operator allowed the authors to have access to precise databases, giving this article empirical information for both the situation before and after the implementation. These insights help to understand DRT systems and support (future) design of DRT and transit systems. A few indicators were chosen for the comparison: distances, ridership, costs, Greenhouse Gases (GHG), emissions and population’s perception. The ridership dropped, however, for being “demand-tailored”, the mileage per passenger reduced, improving the costs and GHG emissions. In regards to population’s perception, the system enjoyed a good evaluation.

Find the Thredbo presentation of Felipe Coutinho HERE and the paper HERE

Impacts of charging methods and mechanisms of zero emission buses on costs and level of service

To limit global warming and strive for more liveable and sustainable cities, innovative zero-emission (ZE) buses are on the rise all around the world. Different alternative vehicle propulsion methods have been introduced during the last decades. However, for now, only trolley, battery and fuel-cell electric vehicles can be classified as (on the pipe) ZE-buses.

This research focuses on battery electric buses, since they are most cost-efficient and – therefore – the most promising option for the (near) future. An important limitation of battery electric buses is however the limited range of operations due to capacity restrictions of batteries. Batteries should be (re)charged before, during and/or after daily operations.

Different charging methods, including different charging power systems are available to charge battery electric vehicles. As far as known to the authors, scientific literature focusing on the operations and charging scheduling of electric buses is scarce. In this study, a comparison of different applied charging methods for electric buses is obtained.
A ZE-bus station simulation method is developed to assess charging methods and charging regulations with regards to their impacts on a variety of costs and level of service indicators. This simulation-based method is multi applicable, since it is particularly based on general automated vehicle location (AVL) data. To demonstrate our model, a case study at Schiphol (Amsterdam Airport) is performed.
This research concludes that the shift to ZE-bus transit is involved with higher costs and passenger disturbances. Investment costs of ZE-buses increase substantially: Most electric vehicles are around 60 to 80 percent more expensive than conventional diesel engine vehicles and additional charging infrastructure investments are required. Benefits of electric operations, including vehicle propulsion cost savings up to 70 percent, are not able to compensate these high investments.
The charging method choice contain trade-offs between level of service and (vehicle and charging infrastructure) investment costs. (Slow) depot charging offers opportunities for operations on short distance lines. However, additional vehicles are required in order to replace a vehicle which should be recharged. In this respect, conventional timetables could be complied and the level of service remains unchanged.

To prevent fleet overcapacity, vehicles should be recharged fast (with high charging power) along the line. Slight charging related delays could occur, especially when the number of charging systems is not sufficient, and/or the charging times are relatively long. Bus end stations and terminals are suitable as fast charging locations, since charging time could be combined with buffer time there.

Finally, dynamic/in-motion charging offers opportunities to prevent charging related delays completely due to combined charging and operation time. This charging method is still in its infancy stage yet, so focus is more on (innovative) static charging methods now.

Find the MT-ITS presentation wih Max Wiercx and Raymond Huisman: HERE

Light rail lessons learnt worldwide

Light rail has several potential benefits, both from a mobility and urban quality perspective. However, not all light rail systems are a success and there is much debate about the costs. Niels van Oort, co-director of the Smart Public Transport Lab at TU Delft, investigated 61 cases worldwide and will share his findings on the wider benefits of light rail.

Find the presentation of the Spårvägsforum 2019 in Uppsala HERE

Operations of zero-emission buses: impacts of charging methods and mechanisms on costs and the level of service

To limit global warming and strive for more liveable and sustainable cities, innovative zero-emission buses are on the rise all around the world. For now, only trolley, battery and fuel-cell electric vehicles can be classified as (on the pipe) zero-emission vehicles. Different charging methods, including different charging systems and power, are available to charge battery electric vehicles. However, scientific literature focused on the operation and charging scheduling of electric vehicles is scarce.
In this study, a comparison of different applied charging methods for electric buses is obtained. A new ZE-bus station simulation method is developed to assess charging methods and charging regulations with regard to their impacts on costs and level of service.
The shift to zero emission bus transport is meant for achieving more sustainable and liveable cities. However, this research concludes that this is involved with higher costs and passenger disturbances. The investment costs increase substantially. Benefits of electric operations, including vehicle propulsion cost savings up to 70 percent, are not able to compensate these high investments. (Slow) depot charging offers opportunities for operations on short distance lines. The depot location should be close to a bus station and additional fleet is required. In order to prevent fleet overcapacity, vehicles should be recharged with high charging power along the line, preferably at combined bus stations and terminals in order to prevent charging related delays. Dynamic/In-motion charging – still in its infancy stage yet – offers opportunities to prevent these delays due to combined charging and operation time.

Find the TRB paper and poster of Max Wiercx HERE and HERE

E-bussen laden zorgt voor nieuw spanningsveld op busstations

Om de bijdrage van transport aan de opwarming van de aarde te minimaliseren en de leefbaarheid in onze woonomgeving te verbeteren groeit de wereldwijde vloot zero-emissiebussen snel. Zero emissiebussen dragen bij aan een duurzame en leefbare woonomgeving. Uit dit onderzoek blijkt echter dat inzet van zero emissiebussen ook gepaard gaat met hogere kosten en meer onbetrouwbaarheid van de dienstregeling voor de reiziger. De investeringskosten zijn hoger dan bij ‘oude vertrouwde dieselbussen’. Exploitatie met elektrische bussen is tot 70% goedkoper dan dieselbussen, maar deze winst is niet genoeg om de toename in investeringskosten te neutraliseren. Tot op heden is de capaciteit van batterijen onvoldoende om bussen van begin tot einde dienst zonder tussentijds laden in te zetten. Tussentijds laden in de garage kost echter tijd en extra voertuigbewegingen en is daarom onwenselijk. Om die reden is het aan te raden batterijen te laden op busstations.

Lees meer in het CVS paper met Max Wiercx en Raymond Huisman: Paper en Presentatie

Improving railway passengers experience: two perspectives

This paper describes two perspectives to improve the passenger experience. The passenger satisfaction pyramid is introduced, consisting of the base of the pyramid (dissatisfiers) focusing on time well saved and the top of the pyramid (satisfiers) aiming at time well spent. The challenge in planning and design of public transport services is to find the most efficient (set of) design choices. Depending on the context this might either mean focusing on the top or on the bottom of the pyramid. We found that influencing and enhancing the qualities of the satisfiers is far more important than traditional studies showed us. For stations, regression analyses show that dissatisfiers are responsible for explaining almost half of the total score of the station and satisfiers are responsible for the other half of the scores passengers give for the station. We still have to put a lot of energy in getting the basics right, starting in the planning phase, but then we are not allowed to lean back. We have to keep investing in qualities like ambience, comfort and experience which makes the customers truly happy at the end of the day.

Read our paper HERE and find the presentation HERE

Van B naar Anders

Op woensdag 30 mei organiseerde de Rli naar aanleiding van zijn advies een symposium. Tijdens dit symposium is het advies toegelicht en met betrokkenen uit de mobiliteitswereld besproken. Daarbij wordt stilgestaan bij de toekomst van mobiliteit en infrastructuur, de bestuurlijke praktijk en bij innovatie en verduurzaming van ons mobiliteitssysteem.

Vind alle bijdragen en verslag HIER

De presentatie over de toekomst van mobiliteit van Niels van Oort vind je HIER

The wider benefits of high quality of public transport for cities

The full value of public transport is often underestimated. The 5E framework, consisting of effective mobility, efficient city, economy, environment and equity supports assessing and quantifying this value. This paper presents the framework and a wide selection of sources illustrating the wider benefits of high quality of public transport for cities.

Find our ETC conference paper HERE

The wider benefits of high quality public transport for cities

The true value of public transport is often underestimated systematically while assessing transit impacts of proposed projects. During the planning and assessment of new or improved connections, infrastructure or services, often only the costs of operations, construction and the revenues with regard to fares and travel time savings are accounted for. This approach provides insights into the performance of public transport to some extent, but disregards many other (positive) effects the provision of public services has. Many of which impose an advantage over competing modes of transport. This could result in the postponement or even cancellation of plans, as means are scarce and invested where gains are directly visible. Thus, to enable a fairer assessment of public transport plans, more insight is required into the wider benefits of its operations and impacts on passengers and the environment.

To gain these insights, we developed a methodology to quantify the value of public transport using the five E’s: Effective mobility, Efficient city, Economy, Environment and Equity. Together these aspects provide a better indication of all potential benefits of public transport.

Read more in this ETC 2017 conference paper.

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