Rail OD Estimation and Journey Time Reliability Metrics Using Automated Fare Data

The availability of automatic fare collection (AFC) data greatly enhances a transit planner's ability to understand and characterize passenger travel demands which have traditionally been estimated by manual surveys handed out to passengers at stations or on board vehicles. The AFC data also presents an unprecedentedly consistent source of information on passenger travel times in those transit networks which have both entry and exit fare gates. By taking the difference between entry and exit times, AFC transactions can be used to capture the bulk of a passenger's time spent in the system including walking between gates and platforms, platform wait, in-train time, as well as interchange time for multi-vehicle trips. This research aims at demonstrating the potential value of AFC data in rail transit operations and planning. The applications developed in this thesis provide rail transit operators an easy-to-update management tool that evaluates several dimensions of rail service and demand at near real-time. While the concepts of the applications can be adapted to other transit systems, the detailed configurations and unique characteristic