Development of Benchmarks for First and Last Mile Connectivity of a Metro Rail System Through Performance Evaluation: A Case Study of Mumbai Metro Line 1

As on March 2023, India has an operational metro network of around 818 km spread across 15 cities with another 700 km under implementation (Metro Rail News in A J. Metros Railw. VI (75):55–56, 2023) to address the negative externalities emerged due to rapid urbanization. Such highly capital-intensive metro rail systems also need captive ridership with predominant modal shift from personalized transport modes to achieve muti-dimensional sustainability. To attain such sustained ridership, the public transport authorities should address the perennial issue of first and last mile connectivity by understanding its performance and facilitating seamless passenger dispersal through multimodal integration. Hence, the present study develops a mechanism with a framework structured with multiple evaluators (seven nos) under predominant dimensions i.e. walk, ride/NMT and vehicular integration. The study also presents a new methodology for developing city/corridor specific benchmarks for assessing multiple evaluators. These benchmarks shall act as demand whereas the actual performance of evaluators act as supply, thus arriving at a conclusive rate of performance. New methodologies involving real time commuter opinion and inventory data have been utilized in both demand and performance assessment. The proposed mechanism has been exercised over ‘Mumbai Metro Line 1’ and the actual ‘evaluator performance’ of ‘pedestrian facilities’ and ‘accessibility to differently abled’ has been determined as 69.08% and 100% respectively. Further ‘evaluator performance’ of ‘urban bus integration’ and ‘conventional feeder services’ were determined as 58.82% and 45.54% respectively. It is pertinent to note that the performance of evaluators under the dimension of ‘Ride/NMT’ remained zero due to lack of eco-friendly feeder services. Further the overall weighted performance of ‘Mumbai Metro Rail 1’ has been determined as 38.61%. The developed mechanism can be exercised over any metro rail system across any city to understand the performance of first and last mile connectivity aspect by keeping the proposed framework constant and determining the benchmarks and evaluators’ performance. © The Institution of Engineers (India) 2024.