Centrality measures’ as a tool to identify the transist demand at railway stations : the case of railway network, Sri Lanka

Abstract

Rapidly increasing congestion of traffic in urban and suburban roads raises the urgent necessity of better and quicker railway service in Sri Lanka. In development strategies of railway network, though, travel demand has often taken a back seat to design and engineering features; perhaps due to the lack of adequate robust method and data availability. Taking its cues, this study explores the potential of “Centrality Measures” to serve as an alternative methodology of travel demand forecasting. In this study, the centrality of railway stations in terms railway and road access were computed separately by using ‘centrality measures’ and analysis the relationship with travel demand of station within the railway network of Sri Lanka. Results revealed a significant correlation between transit demand and centrality of railway stations and centrality values have capabilities to explain over 79% of the variation in rail transit demand. Therefore the study suggests that “Centrality Measures” method can serve as an alternative predictor of transit demand, in the absence of good, quality data on trip-making and employment trends.