A multimodal approach to solving the transit fare optimisation problem

In this paper a model for the optimisation of transit fares is proposed and tested on a real-dimension network. Formulated as a multidimensional constrained minimisation problem, the model considers a multimodal transportation system under the assumption of elastic demand for simulating the impacts of fare policies on modal split and network performances. We suggest that the proposed model be applied with the adoption of two objective functions in order to take into account all system and social costs: (transit and road) user costs, firm costs and external costs. Preliminary tests on a real-dimension network show that the main constraints in fare definition are related to the size of public transport subsidies provided by public administration.