The economics of crowding in rail transit

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Urban Economics
Year: 2017
Volume: 101
Issue: C
Pages: 106-122

Score contribution per author:

1.341 = (α=2.01 / 3 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We model trip-timing decisions of rail transit users who trade off crowding costs and disutility from traveling early or late. With no fare or a uniform fare, ridership is too concentrated on timely trains. Marginal-cost-pricing calls for time-dependent fares that smooth train loads and generate more revenue than an optimal uniform fare. The welfare gains from time-dependent fares are unlikely to increase as ridership grows. However, imposing time-dependent fares raises the benefits of expanding capacity by either adding trains or increasing train capacity. We illustrate these results by calibrating the model to the Paris RER A transit system.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:juecon:v:101:y:2017:i:c:p:106-122
Journal Field
Urban
Author Count
3
Added to Database
2026-01-25