CASE STUDY ON EFFECTS OF THE MANDATORY VALIDATION ON BUS COMMERCIAL SPEED

The paper aims to define the new operational requirements and procedures to allow the GTT (Torino public transport company) to implement mandatory validation without negative impacts on both the company and the users. To this end, a four-step methodology has been put forward: a) choice of the reference route and trip sampling; b) data acquisition; c) boarding time analysis and d) future scenario definition. Attained results show that the most unfavourable situation for the company is banning people from boarding the bus/tram through any door (the case today) because it requires, in order to maintain the same time interval at bus stops, an increase of trips in the morning peak hour. Thus, the present system limits the outcomes negatively for the users in terms of waiting time. However, a change could lead to such positive consequences as fuller passenger cooperation to validate tickets/passes and a more ordered boarding, thus reducing fraud and improving the image of the company.