Investigating the Impact of Public Transport Service Disruptions upon Passenger Travel Behaviour—Results from Krakow City

Abstract

Public transport (PT) service disruptions are common and unexpected events which often result in major impediment to passengers’ typical travel routines. However, attitudes and behavioural responses to unexpected PT disruptions are still not fully understood in state-of-the-art research. The objective of this study is to examine how PT users adapt their travel choices and what travel information sources they utilize once they encounter sudden PT service disruptions. To this end, we conduct a passenger survey among PT users in the city of Kraków (Poland), consisting of a series of stated- and revealed-preference questions. Results show that passengers’ reported choices during past PT disruptions mostly involve adjusting the current PT travel routine, exposing a certain bias with their stated choices (which tend to overestimate the probability of modal shifts). Factors influencing travel behaviour shifts include frequency and recency of PT disruption experience, as well as propensity to arrive on-time. With regards to travel information sources, staff announcement and personal experience play an important role in recognizing the emerging disruption, but real-time information (RTI) sources are the most useful in planning the onward journey afterwards. Based on these, we highlight the implications for future RTI policy during PT service disruptions; in particular, the provision of a reliable time estimate until normal service conditions are resumed. Such RTI content could foster passengers’ tendency to use PT services in uncertain conditions, especially as their stated wait time tolerance often matches the actual duration of PT disruptions.

How Does My Train Line Run? Elicitation of Six Information-Seeking Profiles of Regular Suburban Train Users

“…The other half tends to learn it from audio announcements, displays in stations, other transit users and operator employees. This result differs from that obtained by Drabicki et al [39], showing that displays were the primary source of disturbance awareness in a specific city in Poland. This discrepancy could be related to differences in information provision between Poland and France, as the RTI system of Krakow City was still in its early development stages.…”

“…Individual determinants and behavioural responses to unexpected PT disruptions are still not fully understood [39]. A small part of the research on passenger information has focused specifically on disrupted situations, a situation in which information plays an even more important role [40,41].…”

“…The source most used by drivers was radio (58%) followed by variable message signs (16%). Drabicki et al [39] looked at the use of travel information once the PT users encounter sudden service disruption in Krakow (Poland). They differentiated the sources according to the moment in the course of the disruption: to recognize the disruption itself and then to manage it.…”

Impact of Unplanned Long-Term Service Disruptions on Urban Public Transit Systems

“…Additionally, Rahimi et al [34], [35] used a failure time model and a discrete choice model to analyze individuals' waiting time tolerances and mode choices, respectively, during unplanned service disruptions in Chicago using survey data. Drabicki et al [36] examines how PT users adapt their travel choices once they encounter sudden PT service disruptions using a series of RP and SP surveys.…”

A Multi-Criteria Evaluation of Applications Supporting Public Transport Users

“…Consequently, in the era of rapid development of mobile technologies, the process of moving around urban areas has become much less complicated from the passenger's point of view. In addition, such a system also allows the formation of travel behaviour [13][14][15][16][17][18][19], that takes into account general traffic flow management [20], predictive solutions [21] and solutions/technologies in a smart city [22,23]. Thanks to various travel planning applications, public transport users are not limited to traditional timetables.…”