Choosing Optimal Reliability Measures for Passenger Railways: Different Measures for Different Purposes

Reliability is one of the top factors influencing customer satisfaction with passenger rail services. It affects the level of demand for the service as passengers place a large negative value on delays. This matters to service providers, as it drives the fare revenue, and to policy makers as it influences mode share. This paper comprises a review of literature on reliability measurement in public transport, the results of a global survey of suburban rail operators and an assessment of the value of specific reliability measures. Reliability measures are typically required for three distinct purposes: internal measurements to manage the service, reporting to governments/authorities or franchisors for regulatory purposes and external reporting to customers and the media. Different measures may be optimal for each of these purposes and careful consideration is required for their definition and use. However, most railways surveyed chose their reliability measures either based on regulatory obligations or simply because these were used elsewhere

Light Duty Vehicle Transportation and Global Climate Policy: The Importance of Electric Drive Vehicles

With a focus on the interaction between long-term climate targets and personal transport we review the electrification of light duty vehicles (LDVs) within a model that utilizes a learning-by-researching structure. By modeling the demand of vehicles, the use of fuels and emissions implied, the model solves for the optimum RD&D investments that decrease the cost of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles. A range of technology and climate policy scenarios provide long term projections of vehicle use that highlight the potential synergies between innovation in the transportation sector and the energy sector. We find that even when the capital cost of electric drive vehicles (EDVs) remains higher than that of traditional combustion engine alternatives, EDVs are likely to play a key role in the decarbonisation implied by stringent climate policy. Limited innovation in batteries results in notable increases in policy costs consistent with a two degree climate policy target