Reliability of Stockholm Subway - Index of

Abstract
Economic growth causes the rapid process of urbanization which results in the
considerable demand for transportation. Public transit is known to be one of the most
effective and sustainable solutions to satisfy this demand. Among all the
transportation modes subway is the most popular one having high capacity and being
independent of road traffic. Expanding the subway capacity is usually expensive and
the operator prefers to utilize the existing capacity more efficiently. Intensive use of
the capacity may cause problems of service reliability which brings about less
attraction of customers. That is why operators maximizing the capacity should
guarantee the service reliability. Stockholm is a growing city and its subway also
experiences difficulties in providing reliable operation. AB Storstockholm Lokaltrafik
(SL), the owner of the subway network, evaluates the reliability with help of manual
surveys that are costly and not comprehensive. Although SL has the system that
automatically collects data on subway operations, the data are not widely applied at
present. This research aims to introduce possible measures of reliability through
statistical analysis of the dataset and the timetable. It includes evaluation of on-time
performance; waiting and travel time; headway adherence; distribution of dwell time,
delays and headways. In the case study the thesis examines the reliability of Green
line in March, 2010. The results demonstrate the practical applicability of the
proposed analysis which helps to detect the factors lowering reliability of the service.
Key words: reliability of subway, punctuality, regularity
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