Research On Differential Pricing Method Of High-speed Railway Considering Passenger Travel Choice Behavior

In recent years,with the rapid development of high-speed railway in China,more and more passengers take high-speed railway as their first choice of transportation.At present,China’s high-speed railway adopts a single fixed ticket pricing method,that means train running between the same OD have the same ticket price on the same seat.This pricing method cannot reflect the difference of train running time and departure time,nor can it reflect the preference of passengers in travel choice.In view of the above problems,this paper considers the travel choice behavior of passengers,and studies the differential pricing method of high-speed railway passenger products.The main research contents are as follows:Firstly,the latent class model,differential pricing theory and travel choice behavior theory are reviewed.By introducing the principle and construction steps of the latent class model,this paper analyzes the significance and applicable conditions of implementing differential pricing for high-speed railway in China,and puts forward a differential pricing strategy for high-speed railway considering passengers’ travel choice behavior.Then,RP and SP traffic survey methods are used to obtain passenger travel information.According to the analyzed and sorted data,passenger market is segmented based on the latent class model.At the same time,the passenger travel choice model is constructed and the parameter values of the variables in the model are estimated.Through the analysis of the model parameters,the travel preference of various passengers is obtained,and the parameter values in the model are used to quantify the preference of various passengers for the train attribute,and the willingness to pay of all passengers for the running time and departure time is obtained according to the latent class probability.Secondly,based on the factors affecting passenger travel choice,the high-speed railway passenger products are divided into different types by choosing train running time and departure time,and the generalized passenger travel cost function is constructed.Based on the user equilibrium flow allocation theory and considering the demand elasticity of passenger flow in passenger market and the transport capacity of passenger products,a double-level programming model of differential pricing for high-speed railway is established,which aims at maximizing the revenue of railway departments and minimizing the generalized travel cost of passengers.Finally,a heuristic algorithm based on sensitivity analysis was designed to solve the model,in which the lower model was solved by setting an internal penalty function because the model added constraints of passenger product transportation capacity.Taking the Xian-Chengdu passenger dedicated line as an example,the fares of different passenger products and their corresponding passenger flows are obtained according to the algorithm,and the feasibility and rationality of the differential pricing model and its algorithm are illustrated by comparing the changes of ticket prices,passenger flows and ticket revenue before and after differential pricing.