Evaluation of railway performance through quality of service

[摘要] Railways worldwide have experienced unprecedented growth over the last decade. The infrastructure of many European railways is becoming increasingly saturated, while the operators face strong demands to increase services and carry more passengers and freight. There has been a high demand for performance improvement, to provide better service to customers. This problem is drawing increasing attention from many parties within and beyond the railway industry. In this research, the author first reviewed and analysed the existing performance measures used in railway transportation. A new generic framework for the measurement and improvement of railway network performance has been proposed, based on the concept of quality of service. The key factors affecting quality of service are identified and analysed. Secondly, the quantification of performance has been identified based on the Quality of Service framework. Multi criteria decision making has been applied to determine the weights of each Key Performance Indicator in the framework. Finally, factors within the railway system have been analysed for their impact on performance with a sensitivity analysis, to support the development of performance improvement plans. A case study has been conveyed to show the influence of the system properties on the performance measured by quality of service.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:School of Engineering

[关键词] T Technology;TF Railroad engineering and operation