CVL 746: Public Transportation Systems

Questions Set 2

1. On transit line with a given Pmax the operator is interested in providing a required transporting
capacity by a smaller no. of large TUs because of their lower cost per unit capacity. However
passengers requires shorter headways. i.e., higher frequency of service which dictates the use of a
greater no. of smaller TUs. Find the optimal balance between (the transit unit capacity, CTU) the
interests of two-parties considering costs. Following are the assumptions:
• Total hourly cost of operation of the line is the product of unit vehicle operating cost (c0) and
the number of TUs on the line
• Passenger demand Pmax is constant and is related to the total number of passengers boarding
along the line PL by η
• Cycle speed VC is independent of TU size and the number of passengers.
• Avg. passenger waiting time is equal to half of headway.
• Avg. value of passenger time is constant (cp)

Given Data: Line Length (L) in km; Cycle Speed (Vc) in km/hr; Cycle time (T) in mins; Number of
Transit units (NTU) in TU/hr

2. Compute the optimal train length for a metro line that can be operated by 2-, 4-, 6-, or, 8- car train
lengths and has the following values.

L = 16.4 km; PL = 14, 600 prs/h; η = 0.72; α = 0.75; Cv = 180 sps/veh, Vc = 32 km/h; c0 = $24/ veh-hr;
cp = $6/ veh-hr