Feasibility of Flex-Route as a Feeder Transit Service to Rail Stations in the Suburbs: Case Study in Toronto

Flex-route transit service is a promising option to serve low-density urban areas. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility and benefits of replacing feeder fixed-route transit routes in a suburban area by flex-route service. Three routes in the City of Oakville (a suburb of Toronto) that connect with the regional commuter rail (GO Transit) were chosen for the analysis. A simulation of the routes under the existing structure and under several flex-route designs was performed. The results show that assigning an appropriate slack time is essential in having an effective flex-route service and that more slack time does not necessarily translate into more ridership. The results also show that improving the performance of the transit service, in terms of passenger per vehicle revenue hours, will occur only if the ratio of the increase in ridership relative to the added slack time is more than the ratio of the existing ridership relative to the scheduled running time of the original fixed-route service.