Optimal Fares and Capacity Decisions for Crowded Public Transport Systems

Crowding on urban mass transit systems is common in both developed and developing countries. A roundtable report by the International Transport Forum identifies crowding as a major source of inconvenience that increases the generalized cost of travel (OECD, 2014). Crowding occurs not only while riding buses and trains, but also when boarding and alighting from them, when purchasing tickets, while waiting on platforms or at stops, and while accessing stations by escalator, elevator or on foot (King et al., 2014).