Data envelopment analysis (DEA) based transit route temporal performance assessment: a pilot study

The transit agencies aim to allocate limited resources properly and maximise ridership. Measuring the performance of individual transit routes within a transit system plays a critical role in finding operational problems and increasing transit ridership. The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method has been employed to compare the performance of different units (e.g., transit operators, transit lines/ routes within a transit system). This paper first reviews the application of DEA for transit performance evaluation. Thereafter, with a case study on a bus route in Brisbane, a pilot study is conducted to discuss the application of DEA for temporal performance evaluation (service effectiveness) of a transit route considering number of services and travel time as inputs and transit work and on-time performance as outputs.