This paper describes the reliability of public transport chains in the Netherlands, based on a sample of 300 trips. Differences according to the degree of urbanization, distance, time of day, and day of week are investigated. The analysis starts with the estimation of distributions of arrival and travel times of various public transport modes. A main conclusion is that in general the mismatch between realized and official travel times is rather small. The reliability of transport chains is smaller in areas with low population density and on Sundays. The explanation is that in these regions (on these days) frequencies are low so that if one misses a connection, one may have to wait a long time before one can continue the trip. (A)
Abstract