CONTENTS Illustrations viii Preface x Acknowledgements xi 1 Organization and control of transport in the British Isles 1 Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1 The Irish Republic 5 Public spending in Great Britain 6 The operating industries in the United Kingdom 8 Regulation 12 Other organizations 14 2 The role of public transport 17 The overall pattern 17 Definitions 17 Comparisons of bus and rail trip rates with the NTS 21 Composition of the rail and bus markets 21 Use of the 'trips per head' measure 22 Variations in public transport use by age and sex 23 Variations by time of day, and day of week 24 The 'market gearing' concept 26 The journey to work 27 Other journey purposes 29 Trip chaining 30 Time spent in travel 30 Changes in individuals' travel over time 31 Taxis and private hire cars 32 Public transport and car use 33 The London case 34 Aggregate forecasting of public transport demand 35 Longer-term elasticities 39 Policy implications 40 3 Service quality and marketing 43 Limitations of aggregate demand forecasting 43 Current service quality indicators 45 User perception of service quality 48 Quantifying the effects of service quality on ridership 49 Marketing and quality initiatives by bus operators 50 Marketing to the individual customer 53 Conclusions 55 4 The technology of bus and coach systems 57 Design of the vehicle 57 Buses on road networks 68 Conclusion 76 5 Urban railways and rapid transit systems 78 Early developments 78 Types of urban rail system 79 Basic system characteristics 81 Current rail developments in Britain 93 6 Network planning 97 Typical structures 97 Urban form and land use 98 Design of public transport networks 100 Park-and-ride (P&R) 113 Public transport in low-density situations 116 Appendix: a technique for illustrating optimal interstation spacing 117 7 Costing and cost allocation methods 121 The structure of costs 121 Cost allocation methods 127 Rail cost allocation 131 Examples of average costs 134 Statistical models of cost structures 135 Concluding observations 136 8 Pricing theory and practice 137 Basic concepts 137 Peak costing 140 Price elasticity 142 The form of the demand curve, and its implications 146 The travelcard concept 150 Is there a case for premium pricing? 154 Fare collection methods 155 Conclusion 158 9 Rural public transport 160 Defining 'rural 160 Improving 'conventional' public transport 168 Alternative 'solutions' to the rural transport problem 170 Impact of the 1985 Transport Act and subsequent policies 174 Concluding observations 176 10 Intercity public transport 178 Introduction 178 The present long-distance market in Britain 178 Current patterns and recent trends within each mode 184 Developments in technology 195 The current network structure and policy issues 201 Some concluding observations 202 11 Some current policy issues 205 Long-run demand issues 205 Population trends 205 Car ownership 206 Has a fundamental change occurred in the relationship between public transport use and established causal factors? 206 Substitution for travel 207 Capacity constraints 208 Separation of infrastructure and operations 209 Issues in pricing policy 210 Issues in specific sectors 211 The role of small vehicles 212 Trip rates in major conurbations 212 Environmental and sustainability issues 214 Some concluding thoughts 215 Index 111