An A Degree Project in traffic anD transPortPlanning T A r stockholm, sweden 2015 A zon A Ibáñez Metro user evaluation of crowding during rush hours Metro user evaluation of crowding during rush hours Case study: Stockholm ANA TARAZONA IBÁÑEZ TSC-MT 15-006 KTH2015 KTH royal insTiTuTe of TecHnology www.kth.se School of architecture and the built environment Metro user evaluation of crowding during rush hours Case Study: Stockholm Ana Tarazona Ibáñez Master Thesis in Transport Science KTH – Royal Institute of Technology Department of Transport Science Division of Transport Planning, Economy and Engineering Stockholm 2015 TSC – MT 15-006 3 4 ABSTRACT Millions of people use public transport daily. Specifically, 1,204,000 is approximately the number of boardings per contract area a winter's day in Stockholm. Since the capacity and frequency of the metro service are already quite good in this city, this thesis does not focus on improve that. Its aim is to know the assessment made by metro users of the crowding produced during rush hour. This evaluation is performed by two questionnaires, one shorter that is carried out on board and one longer, online. But before starting with the surveys, this work introduces some general information about public transport in Stockholm and it distinguishes capacity and crowding concepts. Any human behavior begins with the attitudes and perceptions that people show to any particular aspect, from which and through their preferences, they define their behavior acting in one way or another. And once they have made their decision and have chosen to use a service, they will be able to evaluate it by their satisfaction level. All these concepts are studied here as the basis for the surveys' development. After its writing and conduction to students, KTH workers, etc. the results obtained are analyzed by using SPSS statistical software. From the users' attitudes, their perceptions, preferences and satisfaction levels, the metro system weaknesses are identified and some improvements are proposed, in addition to making proposals for future research. 5 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First I would like to acknowledge the help given by my supervisor, Karl Kottenhoff, who has been shown always attentive and willing to help me. He has taught me many concepts related to surveys of public transport, and thanks to him I wish to deepen them henceforth. But he also helped me with SPSS software and he facilitated the surveys conduction among ABE group and among some of his students. Regarding the surveys conduction, I would also like to thank Albania Nissan and Susanne Jarl, who also helped to some extent. I would like to thank Anders Lindahl his first advices to choose the subject of my Master Thesis, as well as the contact he provided me with MTR. Of this company, I would like to thank Jan Magnusson his willingness to help me with some aspects of my Thesis and his advices for edit the surveys. I would also like to thank my new friends of this unforgettable experience, with whom I have enjoyed this year in Stockholm the fullest, beyond work time. I do not want to forget those friends who despite the distance, make me feel near them. And finally I would like to thank my wonderful family for their help to enjoy this year, showing always their full confidence in me. All of them, from Spain, have helped me in difficult times and have shared with me those happiest. 7 8 CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 6 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 10 1.1. BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION ............................................................................. 10 1.2. AIM AND OBJECTIVES. LIMITATIONS ......................................................................... 13 1.3. METHODOLOGY. REPORT OUTLINE ........................................................................... 14 2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................... 16 2.1. CROWDING ................................................................................................................. 16 2.2. SURVEY METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................ 23 3. PUBLIC TRANSPORT IN STOCKHOLM .................................................................................. 30 3.1. INTRODUCTION TO THE CITY...................................................................................... 30 3.2. MAIN PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORK ....................................................................... 34 3.3. STOCKHOLM METRO (TUNNELBANA) ........................................................................ 36 4. CAPACITY – CROWDING ...................................................................................................... 38 4.1. CAPACITY .................................................................................................................... 38 4.2. CROWDING ................................................................................................................. 43 5. CONCEPTS FOR THE SURVEY ............................................................................................... 48 5.1. ATTITUDES .................................................................................................................. 48 5.2. PERCEPTION ................................................................................................................ 51 5.3. SATISFACTION ............................................................................................................. 56 6. SURVEY IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS .......................................................................... 60 6.1. SOFTWARE AND IMPLEMENTATION .......................................................................... 60 6.2. BACKGROUND DATA .................................................................................................. 62 6.3. RESPONSE RATES ........................................................................................................ 66 6.4. RESULTS....................................................................................................................... 68 7. RESULTS, EVALUATION, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................................. 80 7.1. DISCUSSION, COMPARISONS AND PROPOSALS ........................................................ 80 7.2. WEAKNESSES IDENTIFICATION AND POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS. STUDY OF EXISTING MEASURES .............................................................................................................. 93 7.3. CONCLUSIONS. RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................... 102 References ................................................................................................................................. 104 Appendices ................................................................................................................................ 108 9 10 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION Nowadays in every country of the world, people often have different schedules, according to what society is accustomed to do. But within each country, people have similar work, school and other chores schedules, causing severe condensation rating at certain times of the day. This usually occurs early in the morning and late day, and it is necessary to learn how to handle these peak hours in order to fulfill the role of public transport efficiency. If we focus on Stockholm, this is the capital and the largest city of Sweden. Public transport in Stockholm consists of bus, metro, regional/suburban rail, light rail, tram and archipelago boat, and it will be shown a little bit more information about it later. As part of public transport, Stockholm has a Metro system, consisting of 3 lines (Red, green and Blue) and 100 stations, of which 53 are above ground and 47 underground, all of these distributed around a total length of 105.7 km. Currently the frequency of Stockholm metro is every 10 minutes during the day and every 30 overnight. Although during the day, at certain stations of the red and blue lines, metro runs every 5 minutes, and every 4 at some stations on the green line. If we focus on our topic, today peak-hours management consists of adding trains, achieving a rate of 5 to 6 minutes on most stations and between 2 and 3 minutes at main stations. Regarding the capacity, a metro train can technically take 1,200 passengers, and the practical capacity is exceeded when all the seats and 30 percent of standing are filled. As the following picture shows, the occupancy rate between Slussen and Gamla Stan is 111 percent in morning rush hour, and is 101 percent between Tekniska Högskolan and Stadion. Between half past seven and half past eight there are 17,400 travelers on trains, which are 1,700 more than capacity allows. Passengers on the red line in rush hour have increased by 2,800 people since 2009 and they are expected to increase further in the coming years. Figure 1: Graphic by Jonas Backlund. Source: Backlund 11 The Stockholm County Council owns the Stockholm Metro through Storstockholms Lokaltrafik (SL), and MTR Corporation is responsible for its operation.