Quantitative Assessment of Public Transport Interchanges

A public transport interchange is commonly understood to be the place where transfers between different public transport lines or modes occur. In large metropolitan areas few trips by public transport can be accomplished directly, without even a single transfer. Thus, using interchanges is an everyday experience for most city dwellers. Transfer at an interchange is usually associated with having to walk to a different stop or platform and time delay while waiting for the next connection. From the point of view of passengers, these two issues are the most important when evaluating the discomfort of transfer at a particular interchange. An interchange consists of public transport stops and possibly also railway and/or metro stations as well as other facilities (e.g. Park and Ride car park, bicycle stands, kiosks, toilets, etc.). Public transport stop and station platforms are connected by walk links (pathways), which are also parts of an interchange. It should be noted that interchange definition used by Transport for London (2001) is more restrictive – the emphasis here is placed on the planned nature of interchanges: Interchange facility – a purpose-built facility where interchange takes place, such as a railway station, bus station or bus/tram stop”. As many public transport transfer areas in Warsaw arose spontaneously, without proper planning or design, the broader definition given in the first paragraph will be used in this paper. It is commonly recognized that passenger friendly public transport interchanges play a key role in making public transport more attractive and more efficient. Yet besides general design guidelines and examples of good practice, there are no practical methods for assessing the level of friendliness, efficiency and service quality of interchanges. This paper presents an original method for evaluating public transport interchanges using 8 indicators as well as application of the method for assessing transport interchanges in Warsaw. All the indicators are quantitative and can be used for assessing both existing interchanges as well as plans for new or upgraded facilities