CLASSIFYING RAILWAY PASSENGER STATIONS FOR USE TRANSPORT PLANNING - APPLICATION TO BULGARIAN RAILWAY NETWORK

A methodology for the classification of railway passenger stations was developed in this study. Four groups of factors are defined to study the characteristics of the station: potential of the town, importance of the town, infrastructural factors, and characteristics of passengers. In the research we investigated 18 factors and studied 98 passenger stations of railway network in Bulgaria. The method of principal components has been applied for grouping the factors and cluster analysis has been applied to classify the stations. The factors have been classified into 4 components by the method of principal components. The stations have been classified into 6 groups using hierarchical cluster analysis. The methods, Average linkage between group and Within-groups linkage, and distance-type measures Euclidean distance and Squared Euclidean distance were compared to verify the results of cluster analysis. The grouping of the stations has been used for the determination of the stops for categories intercity passenger trains. The main groups of stations for servicing express trains are the first, second, third, fourth and fifth groups. In the sixth group are stations for servicing fast passenger trains. The methodology can be applied to the study of all stations and stops in the rail network.