Impact case study database

The TSC designed and continuously manages an innovative, formal process to organise engagement with and dissemination to industry, providing a clear path from research to impact. A key innovation has been the establishment of industry consortia, steered by member public transport organisations and facilitated by the TSC. This continuous engagement enables the generation of unique longitudinal data and detailed observations that form the basis of the underpinning analytical research.

The nine consortia include the Community of Metros (42 metros from major cities such as Paris and Beijing), the International Bus Benchmarking Group (16 organisations including TfL London Buses, Istanbul IETT) and the American Bus Benchmarking Group (21 operators). Other consortia encompass operators of mainline railway operators and airports.

Impact has arisen from significant improvements to the design of public transport systems, financial efficiency, fare and funding mechanisms, and the measurement and management of service quality. The impact cited, are a selection from 10 of the 110 consortia partners where the sum of per annum and one-off financial benefits cited exceeds GBP1,000,000,000.  Many policy benefits, once established, generally continue for some years beyond the initial impact.  We would expect further social and economic impact to arise from the improvements to service quality and enhanced design, but these are not easily quantifiable.

Five key categories of impact generated in the period August 2013 to July 2020 are as follows. Each category is supported by evidence provided by one or more transport companies in six countries: UK, China, USA, Canada, Portugal and Turkey, who benefitted directly from our research.

I1. Change in the design and planning of new metro lines in mega-cities (underpinning research R1, R5, R6)

The rapid development of metros in China and India has been directly influenced by TSC research that has strengthened the economic ( R1, R5) and operational ( R6) case for higher-capacity metro lines, enhancing the benefits that metros bring to mega-cities:

**[Source 1.1** Guangzhou Metro Company , 2017- ongoing]. 10 new metro lines or extensions have been designed with larger and longer trains representing an increase in train capacity of 33%. The evidence states that:

“Ongoing expansion projects, including 10 new lines or extensions totalling 258.1 km between 2017 and 2023, are being directly influenced by the research carried out by the TSC at Imperial College London.”

I2. Directly influencing funding policy (underpinning research R2)

Statistical research ( R2) into the responsiveness of public transport demand was combined with evidence from the longitudinal datasets and syntheses of policy and practice. The impact has been significant changes to fares and funding policies in several cities:

[ **Source 2.1:** Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation Corp. Ltd ., 2015-ongoing] Fares structures were changed for the metro in Beijing, contributing to a GBP352,660,000 per annum increase in revenue from 2015. TSC presented its research to the Chinese Government in 2012.

[ **Source 2.2: Lisbon City Bus Operator,** Carris , 2017-2020] the TSC directly helped to secure up to EUR30,000,000 of government funding, supporting a more sustainable public transport system.

**[Source 2.3: Newcastle Metro,** Nexus , 2017]: states “the assistance that Nexus received from the RTSC was instrumental in helping Nexus acquire £337 million of capital grant from the UK Government.”

I3. Improving cost efficiency (underpinning body of related research)

Public transport operators have used TSC research to make the case for and achieve significant improvements in cost efficiency:

**[Source 3.1: Montreal Metro,** Société de Transport de Montréal , 2014-ongoing]: “The STM has therefore decided to extend the useful life of the MR-73 cars to 60 years. The discussions leading to this decision were based on a 2012 report by Imperial College London (“Rolling Stock Replacement vs Refurbishment”)…This scenario would generate savings of nearly $500m [CAD500million] ”

**[Source 3.2, Istanbul City Bus Operator,** IETT , 2014-2017]: “RTSC’s research allowed us to make savings to our operating expenditure which roughly amounts to 59 million TL per year (equivalent to 50 million USD PPP) by nearly halving layover hours without impacting the service quality.”

I4. Enhancing service quality and safety (underpinning research R3, R4, R6)

Datasets of enhanced granularity, designed by TSC, have bolstered the modelling of public transport service quality. Statistical analysis ( R3), the development of performance measures ( R4) and operational research ( R6) have directly led to quantifiable and strategic improvements to service quality with far-reaching benefits:

[Source 4.1 Shanghai Metro, SSMG, 2009-2017] Research application yielded a 12-fold improvement in reliability between 2009 and 2017 (a 5 fold increase between 2013 and 2017) and contributed to a 6% increase train speeds on Line 12.

[ **Source 4.2: Transport for London,** London Buses , 2014-2018]: Strategic application of the TSC’s research ( R4) provided the impetus to TFL to maintain bus speeds, informed TfL’s bus safety program and changed the way service quality is measured.

I5. Providing new performance measurement tools (underpinning research R4)

Research into improved performance measurement methods by TSC, has been adopted and used at the highest levels of operator organisations, providing new insight on performance from a customer perspective:

**[Source 5.1:** New York City Transit , 2017-ongoing]: “The annual Key Performance Indicator research is regularly used to inform Senior Executives how NYCT compares…..NYCT introduced new customer-focused indicators…These metrics were inspired by passenger metrics at other CoMET systems, and by TSC research carried out for the IBBG..”

**[Source 5.2:** Hampton Roads Transit , 2012-ongoing]: “HRT decided to adopt ABBG’s definition for On-Time Performance and data collection methodology as developed by TSC”