The Movingo integrated ticket: seamless connections across the mälardalen region of Sweden

ABSTRACT

The need for improved public transport (PT) ticketing in ever-growing deregulated PT markets has made well-designed integrated ticketing systems a priority area of intervention for PT service providers around the world. Yet, very little practical evidence of its impacts are reported in Sweden and in the world at large. The focus of this study was the impacts of the Movingo integrated ticketing scheme in terms of PT patronage, user satisfaction and the perceived quality of the ticketing set-up. Three travel surveys were conducted along the Stockholm-Uppsala route. Methods including logistic regression and correlated t-tests were used to analyse the samples. The findings suggest that the scheme made rail commuting more attractive resulting in an overall increase of about 24% in ticket sales with 3% – 15% car commuters reporting that they patronised PT services after the project. The scheme also resulted in increased rail commuter satisfaction. The overall perceived quality of the ticketing set-up did not however improve due to interoperability challenges. Service providers’ uncertainty about equitable distribution of revenue among the participating service providers, interoperability challenges and the lack of interest among most of the participating service providers to sell Movingo tickets are some issues to be addressed.     

Do supra-modal traveller types exist? A travel behaviour market segmentation using Goal framing theory

Travel behaviour market segmentations have become a popular method of identifying different types of car users, bicyclists or public transport users. However, while previous studies have looked at different types of users within single modes, such as the car, little research has explored the existence of traveller types transcending modes. The study presented here is an extension of an earlier segmentation study that distinguished travellers based on their individual preferences, yet did so independent of their current mode choice. The data came from a travel survey at a middle-sized UK university and were analysed using a combination of hierarchical and iterative partitioning methods. Crucially, however, the current study uses a different theoretical framework to previous segmentation research—goal framing theory—which may more adequately explain the findings than models used in the past such as the theory of planned behaviour. The findings supported earlier work, suggesting the presence of seemingly stable traveller types that cut across modes and can be distinguished based on gain, hedonic and normative goals. This has important implications for policies aimed at encouraging mode change which may have been too preoccupied with changing people’s attitudes rather than paying attention to people’s underlying travel preferences.

     

Risk and return of U.S. water transportation stocks over time and over bull and bear market conditions

The aim of this paper is to investigate the behaviour of water transportation company stock returns in the U.S. stock exchanges from 1985 to 1994 in order to determine whether the systematic risk of this industry is different from that of the 'average' company in the market, whether it has changed over the ten year period, over bull and bear market conditions, and whether there is a firm 'size' effect in the industry. In the context of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (Capm), we find that the systematic risk of the shipping industry return is not different from that of the 'average' company. It is also found that the covariance of water transportation companies with respect to the overall stock market return did not change over the ten year period although it appears that it has changed over normal upward/downward market movements. There is also reasonable evidence that the intercept of the equation might have changed over normal upward/downward market movements. Finally, we document contradictory evidence regarding the size effect; during the period 1985-1989 we find small companies to have significantly higher returns and risk while during the period 1990-1994 medium size companies tend to have higher risk than small and large firms, which is not however compensated by higher returns.     

ICE(R)系列新动车用 COBRA诊断系统--对车务人员和维修的创新支持

ICE 系列新动车ICE3、ICET、ICE TD采用了层级结构的诊断系统COBRA(Central On Board RailwayAssistant车载辅助中心),有各装置的自诊断和动车有关的上一级诊断.COBRA诊断系统有清晰的目标群取向,总是只向车务人员和维修人员提供重要的信息和可能的补救措施.在列车进段之前就对自动释放和经无线传输的诊断数据做了计算.列车一进段就准备好了维修人员和维修材料,例如更换损坏件和磨耗件,在进行清洁作业的同时为列车下一次运行准备好了良好的状态.     

The marine electronic highway in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore—an assessment of costs and key benefits

The Straits of Malacca and Singapore are an important trade route linking the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean. They are also rich in resources and support a range of activities that benefit the economies of the littoral states (Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore). This important shipping route is a very congested waterway and the authorities are keen to improve navigation facilities to promote ship safety and reduce the risk of groundings, collisions and accidents. This will also help to protect the marine environment from the effects of pollution and hence reduce its damaging impact on activities related to the Straits, e.g. fisheries and tourism. The Marine Electronic Highway (MEH) is an attempt to bring together maritime safety technologies and environmental management systems. The paper examines the costs of providing such a highway and considers some of the benefits which could accrue from its implementation. The analysis, conducted in the form of a cost-benefit study, clearly shows the economic viability of the scheme.     

Analysis of Driver's Decelerating Strategy in a Car-following Situation

This report describes a decelerating driver-model expressed by driving mode transition in car-following situations. The assumptions for constructing the model are that decelerating strategy of a driver is classified into several simple driving modes and that a driver changs his driving modes based on his perceptible characteristics and experiential rules. Deceleration action is divided into three states; following, standing and braking, which are applied to the model. The model has two paths for driver's decelerating action, one of which is selected by the driver based on the perceptible characteristics and experiential rules. The suitability of the model has been experimentally verified.     

Multiphysic modelling of railway vehicles equipped with pneumatic suspensions

This article presents a multidisciplinary approach of railway pneumatic suspension modelling: both multibody and pneumatic aspects are taken into account. The work aims at obtaining a realistic model of the secondary suspension and coupling it with a multibody model of a train. Various components of the pneumatic circuit such as bellows, tanks, pipes and valves are taken into account. The article focuses on the bellow-pipe-tank subsystem for which several modelling approaches are presented and compared. Differences between differential and algebraic models are highlighted, and an application-dependent choice between them is suggested. A complete model of the pneumatic circuit is then obtained and coupled with a multibody model of the train. As a result, the behaviour of a suburban train equipped with a pneumatic secondary suspension is analysed, in particular undesired oscillating motions which affect the comfort. Topological modifications and improvements of the suspension are also investigated and discussed.     

The Nigerian shipping industry and indigenous shipping companies

The shipping industry in Nigeria since the early 1990s has been experiencing a continuous disastrous downturn. Nigerian shipping companies' participation in international shipping has continued to be very limited. Their presence and impact is hardly felt in the world's shipping industry. Both the national carriers (that is shipping companies with national carrier status) and other indigenous private shipping companies have vessel as well as management problems. These problems have led to the poor performance of the Nigerian shipping industry for over a decade now. The carriers in the industry are not attaining for the country the gains that are supposed to emanate from shipping. This paper points out the importance of shipping to a nation, identifies the problems the country's shipping companies are facing and proffers solutions that include merging of the companies to have strong financial standing and a competitive edge.     

Acceleration noise and level of service of urban roads - A case study

Capacity measurement of roads under mixed traffic conditions as prevailing in India is ambiguous as it varies with time, composition of traffic and roadway encroachments. High incidence of slow moving vehicles and tricycles adds to the problem. Volume - capacity ratio appears to be an inadequate measure of defining level of service under mixed traffic situations. An attempt is made in this paper to explore the possibility of presenting unconventional parameters like standard deviation of speed, co-efficient of variation of speed and acceleration noise as possible measures of level of service. Tentative ranges of acceleration noise are proposed in association with flow and speed to explain level of service of urban roads catering to mixed traffic. The results are based on a study conducted in Madras, a major metropolitan city of India.     

Ground truthing sediment profile imagery with traditional benthic survey data along an established disturbance gradient

Macrobenthic surveys are an expensive, slow and labour intensive means to establish the health of benthic communities. Sediment profile imagery (SPI) is a means of rapid reconnaissance for monitoring large areas of the benthos. SPI has often been used to monitor gross anthropogenic disturbance. The aim of this study is to determine if SPI can be used as a tool to reliably map change in communities along natural estuarine gradients. Macrobenthic sampling was carried out at five stations along an established estuarine gradient. This faunal data was analysed using standard multivariate techniques and to ground truth a concurrent SPI survey. Faunal analysis showed that habitat quality in Inner Galway Bay was generally good, with some localised disturbance from the River Corrib and the sewage out flow exterior to the city dock. Four distinct groups were identified with a degree of overlap occurring between stations 3 and 4. While existing SPI indices mapped habitat quality in the same manner as the faunal data for end member stations, the level of distinction between the habitats of an intermediate staging was found to be poor. This lack of distinction amongst the stage 2 and 3 stations was overcome by developing a tailored index, the Galway Bay index of habitat quality (GBHQ). This index was derived from the 5 observed variables in the SPI data that were determined to best match the faunal distribution by permutative mantel testing. The 5 observed variables from the SPI data were the depth of the apparent redox potential discontinuity (aRPD), the depth of penetration by the prism, and the presence/absence of infauna, surface faecal pellet layer and biogenic mounding. The GBHQ was able to distinguish between the 5 stations to a greater extent than previously described indices, showing clearly the separate groupings defined by the faunal data. The index was tested on a follow up SPI survey and shown to be applicable in mapping a broader range of habitats in Galway Bay. Indices generated for localised mapping of estuarine gradients should be derived from observed features and be ground truthed using faunal data. Some aspects of the GBHQ should be generally applicable to fine grained boreal estuarine sediments (aRPD/penetration), while others may be of limited utility in other locations depending on the digging characteristics of the particular SPI camera, and local factors influencing the persistence of biogenic features in the profile. This derivation technique provides a simple way to optimise SPI to particular studies and localities.