Real-time on-board passenger comfort estimation in complex public transport networks with intersecting lines
Real-time on-board passenger comfort estimation in complex public transport networks with intersecting lines
Comfort on-board public transport vehicles is a critical metric of user experience and service performance. The quantification of this metric requires knowledge of the number of passengers on-board every time a vehicle arrives at or departs from a stop or station. Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) systems allow obtaining such knowledge in real-time, but the information is often incomplete due to system malfunctions, or, more commonly, a lack of the relevant equipment in some vehicles. This study develops an advanced method for passenger estimation that fills gaps in incomplete APC datasets, with computational performance allowing real-time application, and calculates comfort levels on-board public transport vehicles in complex networks where stations are served by multiple lines. The proposed method is tested on a case study considering the Helsinki commuter train network, comprising 6 service lines and 20 stations. The results indicate that the proposed framework can achieve comfort level estimations with high precision across the different cases evaluated. Furthermore, the study provides insight into the key practical question of the number of vehicles that need to be equipped with APC devices in order to obtain sufficiently accurate on-board passenger comfort estimates, and it is shown that it is possible to obtain these estimates even when only a small subset of the runs of any single day are performed by equipped vehicles. Finally, the proposed estimation approach is a valuable tool for operators to obtain a better understanding of daily mobility patterns, evaluate their services through quantifying user experience, and enhance their operations.
Automatic passenger counting, Kalman filter, Multi-line public transport network, On-board comfort, Public transport
Sipetas, Charalampos
2cb9b58d-279f-4920-89c4-2760520d6801
Roncoli, Claudio
959c8e30-003d-4965-9b42-84e2a57a23da
Chandakas, Ektoras
ffb2cf84-d3a8-49f7-bd10-9811fe911035
Kaparias, Ioannis
e7767c57-7ac8-48f2-a4c6-6e3cb546a0b7
May 2026
Sipetas, Charalampos
2cb9b58d-279f-4920-89c4-2760520d6801
Roncoli, Claudio
959c8e30-003d-4965-9b42-84e2a57a23da
Chandakas, Ektoras
ffb2cf84-d3a8-49f7-bd10-9811fe911035
Kaparias, Ioannis
e7767c57-7ac8-48f2-a4c6-6e3cb546a0b7
Sipetas, Charalampos, Roncoli, Claudio, Chandakas, Ektoras and Kaparias, Ioannis
(2026)
Real-time on-board passenger comfort estimation in complex public transport networks with intersecting lines.
Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, 186 (Pt. C), [105607].
(doi:10.1016/j.trc.2026.105607).
Abstract
Comfort on-board public transport vehicles is a critical metric of user experience and service performance. The quantification of this metric requires knowledge of the number of passengers on-board every time a vehicle arrives at or departs from a stop or station. Automatic Passenger Counting (APC) systems allow obtaining such knowledge in real-time, but the information is often incomplete due to system malfunctions, or, more commonly, a lack of the relevant equipment in some vehicles. This study develops an advanced method for passenger estimation that fills gaps in incomplete APC datasets, with computational performance allowing real-time application, and calculates comfort levels on-board public transport vehicles in complex networks where stations are served by multiple lines. The proposed method is tested on a case study considering the Helsinki commuter train network, comprising 6 service lines and 20 stations. The results indicate that the proposed framework can achieve comfort level estimations with high precision across the different cases evaluated. Furthermore, the study provides insight into the key practical question of the number of vehicles that need to be equipped with APC devices in order to obtain sufficiently accurate on-board passenger comfort estimates, and it is shown that it is possible to obtain these estimates even when only a small subset of the runs of any single day are performed by equipped vehicles. Finally, the proposed estimation approach is a valuable tool for operators to obtain a better understanding of daily mobility patterns, evaluate their services through quantifying user experience, and enhance their operations.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 4 March 2026
Published date: May 2026
Keywords:
Automatic passenger counting, Kalman filter, Multi-line public transport network, On-board comfort, Public transport
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510614
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510614
ISSN: 0968-090X
PURE UUID: aad26c5b-1aed-4f68-880a-db77486f7218
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Date deposited: 14 Apr 2026 16:36
Last modified: 15 Apr 2026 01:53
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Contributors
Author:
Charalampos Sipetas
Author:
Claudio Roncoli
Author:
Ektoras Chandakas
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