Effects of the mandatory validation on bus commercial speed: case study in Torino (Italy)

to all PT subscribers to validate their ticket and pass when they board a bus/tram (already mandatory for metro). Such law entails relevant changes both for users, who had to internalise this new habit, and for GTT (public transport company operating in Torino), that had to face several operational and technical issues. The paper aims at defining the new operational requirements and procedures to allow GTT to implement the 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 trips sampling; b) data acquisition; c) boarding times analysis and d) future scenarios definition. Attained results show that the most unfavourable situation for the company is banning people from boarding the bus/tram through any door as is the case today (scenario 2). In fact, requiring the boarding/alighting through only one door would require an increase of trips in the morning peak hour, to maintain the same time interval at bus stops, thus limiting the negative outcomes for the users in terms of waiting time. However, such change could lead to positive consequences, namely the induction to validate tickets and passes and a more ordered boarding, thus reducing the number of people not paying the ticket and improving the image of the company.