Edinburgh Napier University

  Real-time information is becoming increasingly available to transit travellers. This paper discusses the effects of RTI available before the start of a journey in terms of line loads as well as passenger benefits. We consider that it can affect the choice of departure time and stop as well as the route choice. Two types of travellers with access to RTI are distinguished: Travellers who want to arrive at their destination as soon as possible and passengers who prefer to stay slightly longer at their current location if this can reduce their travel time. For illustration we use a network with irregular service arrivals and take the optimal strategy approach of Spiess and Florian (1) as a benchmark for passengers without RTI access. We find that, as expected, travellers without RTI travel longer but also that particular combinations of traveller strategy and RTI provision lead to counterintuitive effects. We further illustrate that the two strategies of the RTI access travellers can lead to significant differences in loads. Implications for demand management are discussed.