The Dutch national research council (NWO) has award the research proposal ‘The COVID-19 public transport capacity model: a decision support instrument to optimise the corona capacity of public transport’ within the COVID-19 programme which funds research that focuses on the effects of the coronavirus crisis and the measures taken against the coronavirus pandemic. The project led by Dr. Kostas Gkiotsalitis and Prof. Karst Geurs from the Transport Engineering and Management group, Department of Civil Engineering, will be conducted in close collaborate with public transport operator Keolis.
The COVID pandemic has strongly reduced public transport use and revenues for public transport operators. The COVID-19 public transport capacity model will examine the optimal public transport service in the Twente region, given COVID-19 measures presented in the public transport protocol. The measures in the protocol limit the capacity of busses and trains to about 30-40% of the number of seats, also called the corona capacity. The outcomes of the 6 month project will help Keolis to design efficient public transport services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The model will be made available as open source software.
Publications
de Weert, Y. , & Gkiotsalitis, K. (2021). A COVID-19 Public Transport Frequency Setting Model That Includes Short-Turning Options. Future Transportation, 1(1), 3-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/futuretransp1010002\
Gkiotsalitis, K., & Cats, O. (2021). Optimal frequency setting of metro services in the age of COVID-19 distancing measures. Transportmetrica A: Transport Science. https://doi.org/10.1080/23249935.2021.1896593
Gkiotsalitis, K. (2021). Modifying the service patterns of public transport vehicles to account for the COVID-19 capacity. 1-21. Paper presented at 100th Transportation Research Board (TRB) Annual Meeting 2021, Virtual Event