On the optimal fare policies in urban transportation

This paper focuses on welfare optimal transport policies in a public transport market where positive externalities from the route supplier to the travellers as well as negative externalities within group of consumers exist. Additionally, there might be capacity constraints of two types. Firstly, the actual numbers of travellers in a period cannot be above the actual seat capacity supplied by the operator. Secondly, the number of seats supplied by the operator cannot exceed the maximum seat capacity given by the fleet of vehicles the operator controls in the period. Among other things, the paper shows that in the case where there is excess seat and route capacity, the fares should be equal to sum of the short run marginal operational costs and the costs an additional passenger is causing on the other travellers. In the long run, however, fares should be equal to sum of the long run marginal operational costs and the costs an additional passenger is causing on other travellers minus the gain in reduced time costs for all of the passengers that the final unit of supply brings. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.