Congestion pricing for schedule-based transit networks

In this paper, we develop models for adjusting or setting fares on a transit system to encourage passengers to choose travel strategies that lead to the least travel delay for the entire system. In our problem setting, these fares vary with time of day. Similar to the one used to reduce congestion on vehicular traffic networks, our goal is to adjust or set fares so that a user equilibrium solution under the new fares yields the least delay or is system optimal. On the other hand, pricing frameworks for traffic networks such as marginal cost pricing do not readily apply because the travel delay in transit systems involves factors different from those in vehicular traffic and cannot be expressed in closed functional forms. The models herein are schedule based and account for loading priorities and individual vehicle capacities explicitly. Differences among the proposed models are illustrated with a small network.