Study On The Peak-load Pricing Of Urban Rail Transit

With the development of economy and the constant aggravation of the urbanization process, people’s travelling demand tends to be diversified, leading to the sharply increased imbalance between supply and demand in urban traffic. As the urban rail transit carries the features of large capacity, rapid speed, punctuality and safety, it has gradually become people’s first choice of public transportation in many big cities. The citizens have certain time rules for travelling, thus always leading to the phenomenon of urban rail traffic congestion during some specific time (like the rush hours in the morning and evening). This kind of traffic congestion will cause much cost in urban rail transportation, such as longer travel time, slower travel speed and lessened travel comfort. Peak-load pricing belongs to price discrimination, which serves as a way of traffic demand management. By charging the congestion fee during peak time, passengers’travel demand will be adjusted in aspects of time and space, which will be helpful to achieve the goal of alleviating traffic congestion.Focused on the topic of peak-load pricing, this paper mainly dealing with the following issues:(1) Make a brief introduction of ticket system in urban rail transit, and on the basis of it, analyze the feasibility of peak-load pricing through the aspects of passenger flow characteristics, ticket price elasticity, sale and check facilities, as well as the degree of residents’acceptance.(2) Make a comprehensive analysis of the causes of urban rail traffic congestion during peak time, and from the angle of economics, explain the principle of urban rail traffic congestion charging on the basis of marginal cost theory.(3) With application of marginal cost theory, the peak-load pricing model is built according to the characteristics of urban rail transit. The model will be popularized to the models of urban rail transit and conventional public traffic peak-load pricing, and to the models of multiple-consumers and two-mode peak-load pricing as well. First provide a numerical example, and then use the Matlab software to verify the model, analyzing the impact of peak-load congestion fees to the passenger flow.(4) Build the peak-load pricing model on the basis of the minimum charge sections or regions of urban rail transit peak-load pricing model, and a genetic algorithm is adopted to solve the model. First provide an example, and then use genetic algorithm toolbox in Matlab software to verify the model, analyzing the impact of different charge systems to the passenger flow.(5) Analyze possible problems of peak-load pricing in concrete implementation, and put forward appropriate solutions accordingly. At last, put forward the initial idea of Peak-load Pricing.