Railway passenger train seats allotment plan establishment and evaluation method based on user equilibrium analysis

Based on passengers' collective boarding choice behavior which manifests as user equilibrium status on transfer network founded on passenger train operation plan, the travel demand of long distance passengers must be satisfied by seats allotment plan as much as possible. According to the user equilibrium status, the seats allotment plan establishment method with the goal of maximizing the direct passenger kilometer is proposed. Further, according to the tickets sale strategies such as reusing tickets in short distance, sharing tickets, reusing seats etc. and their influence on passengers' collective boarding choice behavior, the transfer network based on seats allotment plan is designed. According to the user equilibrium status on this transfer network, an evaluation method is proposed which comprises two indexes; the passengers' traveling costs and the direct passenger kilometer of seats allotment plan. Finally, the establishment process of seats allotment plan is shown by a numerical example, and these different seats allotment plan are evaluated and analyzed.