Maintenance, schedule reliability and transit system performance: Fid-Bau Portal

Maintenance, schedule reliability and transit system performance

Guenthner, Richard P. / Sinha, Kumares C.

Abstract Bus transit vehicle maintenance policy is an often overlooked factor which can have an important effect upon system performance. While no analytic tool is currently available, three previously developed models provide the necessary links required to build a single package to evaluate the relation between the system operating performance and maintenance policy. These include a maintenance model, a reliability model, and a performance evaluation model. The Maintenance Model provides the level of dependability as a function of the number of spare buses and the number of mechanics. The dependability indicates the probability of a schedule failure due to maintenance problems. The Reliability Model uses the dependability value to determine average passenger waiting times, on the theory that undependable service will cause long waiting times. The Performance Evaluation Model quantifies the effect of waiting times on ridership and examines the overall system performance. This paper provides a procedure to link these three models, and presents a case study example for Lafayette, Indiana.