Author(s)

C. Lorenzini & S. Ricci

Abstract

The adoption of fixed interval timetables generally simplifies the building of the timetables. It also allows a better use of infrastructures, vehicles and personnel. The main objectives of this study consist of the derivation of general laws and methodologies from the analysis of real situations concerning the passenger interchanges served by at least one fixed interval service. The parameter to be minimised is the waiting time for the passengers. The investigation covered a total of 25 interchanges in four European countries (Italy, Switzerland, Finland and Austria) including regional railway and metro services, tram and bus lines. On the basis of this variegated set of situations an original widespread model t was derived and tuned capable of: a) defining the limits of convenience for the adoption of fixed interval or \“by appointment” timetables; b) outlining the programming of the optimum timetable in order to reduce the passenger waiting times for the correspondences; c) considering the consequences of the ordinary timetable perturbations by means of a probabilistic approach based on theoretical distribution of delays. 1 Objectives and hypothesis This work is part of activities planned for the Ph. D in railway engineering at \“La Sapienza” University in Rome. The main objectives of this study is to derive general methodologies from the analysis of real situations with particular references to the interchanges where connections take place:

Keywords