OVERVIEW OF RAIL TRANSIT FARE COLLECTION

A study was conducted of the performance of rail transit fare collection equipment. The results can be used to evaluate new and improved fare collection systems. Options in fare collection were illustrated by examining four transit systems. Reliability data, in terms of transactions per failure, were gathered for elements of these systems. Detailed investigations and subsystems failure analyses were conducted for two graduated, distance-related fare systems. Several models were developed for evaluating the impact of equipment reliability on operating costs and passenger delays. Those utilized the binomial probability distribution to calculate the incidence of simultaneous machine failures as a parameter in multi-server queueing and delay frequency models.