Demand-dependent Transit Fare Structure to Alleviate Peak-hour Crowding

Crowding in rush hour on urban railways has been a long-standing issue, unaffected even by COVID-19. As a soft measure, discounts for peak spreading have been implemented in a few major cities since the early 2000s, but not all of them have had a significant impact due to the criteria and the level of discount. This paper explores the possibility of implementing a demand-dependent fare system in currently crowded transit networks. From a simple study of one OD pair, we extend the implementation of this fare into the observed demand data of JR railway in Tokyo, Japan. Assuming passengers are currently traveling at an ideal time to their destinations, we found that there is a level of demand-dependent fare that keeps the operator’s revenue the same, and a level of such fare that minimizes the peak-hour demand. This fare might also reduce travel time marginally since the heavy crowding has made the current peak-hour travel time occasionally higher than shortly before or after. Operators can explore the possibility of implementing such fares when they reach a budget limit or headway capacity as a measure to encourage and discourage passengers to travel at dispersed hours.