Abstract:
The public transportation sector influences the economy of a country directly and indirectly.
Railway transportation is widely used in Sri Lanka, which is used daily by 18% of the total
population. This paper is based on a case study of the queue length for tickets at the
Kollupitiya railway station. The purpose of this paper is to develop and provide effective
solutions to prevent long queues at ticket counters in railway stations in Sri Lanka by
providing reliable and affordable service to the customers. The analysis is based on an online
survey of 94 commuters which was done over six consecutive days in April 2020, which
included four working days and two days of the weekend. All commuters were using the
Kollupitiya railway station during evening peak hours and 96% were passengers between
the ages of 18 and 30 years. Problems faced by these commuters were identified through a
descriptive analysis with results showing that people spend around 9.6 minutes in the queue
at the ticket counter. Usage of a season ticket is the only prevailing solution and was used
by 44.7% of young passengers, but was not a satisfactory remedy since 45.8% of passengers
were not regular users. Generalized cost theory and flow rate theory were used to
mathematically derive solutions to determine optimum waiting time at ticket counters.
Factors including travel time, travel cost, waiting time, and the number of people in the
queue at the time of arrival were considered in the analysis. Time is taken as a proxy for the
level of service of rail transportation and the solutions were derived to reduce the waiting
time in the queue. Accordingly, three cost-effective solutions were identified to mitigate the
formation of long queues. Among them, the implementation of an electronic card system
was found to be the most optimal solution as it reduced waiting time as well as the cost of
operating ticket counters. Since the rail transportation service acts as a monopoly in Sri
Lanka, the whole system should be implemented, operated, and managed totally by the
government. A cost-benefit analysis was done using details given in a proposed project by
the Ministry of Finance Sri Lanka in 2019 as its reference. The analysis indicated that the
government has the ability to recoup the money invested within a payback period of 0.88
years. Hence, there is a need to introduce an efficient and effective ticketing system to ensure
the sustainability of the rail transportation in Sri Lanka. If successful, this system can be
extended to apply to the bus transport system in Sri Lanka.
Citation:
Kandamby, D.A., Karunarathna, S., Navodya, S.Y., Madhavika, K., Geevinda, Y.S., Jayasuriya, M.D., Wijayarathna, R.P., Fahim, R.M., & Dilini, K.P. (2020). Electronic card system to reduce queue length for tickets in Kollupitiya railway station [Abstract].
In T.L. Gunaruwan (Ed.), Proceedings of 5th International Conference on Research for Transport and Logistics Industry 2020 (p. 17). Sri Lanka Society of Transport and Logistics. https://slstl.lk/r4tli-2020/