1

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINNING
UNIVERSITY OF TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG MAI

IMPROVE THE PERFORMANCE EFFICIENCY
OF PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM
IN URBAN AREAS Study Field: Transport Organization and Management
Code: 62.84.01.03SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS

HA NOI- 2014

At , ………… 2014

The thesis can be found in the Information Center of The University of
Transport and Communications.
3

INTRODUCTION
1- THE NEED FOR THIS STUDY
The rapid economic growth along with the urbanization led to the
explosion of travel demand in urban areas, especially in metropolitans.
To meet the increasing travel demands of urban transit has been also a
challenge of public transport system. The Government along with the
urban authorities have been trying to explore several tools to deal with
this position, in which urban public passenger transport is considered an
effective solution.
Over the past decade, Ha Noi and HCM city has taken steps to
develop polices and public transport system, but the fact that the
capacity of this components limited (satisfied about 10% travel demand
in Hanoi, and in HCMC is approximate 7%); in contrast, this rate is
actually high in the similar cities in the global. There are many
objective and subjective reasons leading to this situation, which must
include asynchronous development of urban transport network, the
weakness of the infrastructure serving public transport and the
disproportionate number of public transport vehicles. Besides that, the

perspective of efficiency and evaluated indicators; suggest solutions to
improve performance efficiency of bus system
Realistic contribution:Evaluate the performance efficiency and
existing problems of Hanoi bus system; Summarize the experience
form large cities on the world; Suggest solutions to improve
performance efficiency of bus system
OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH SITUATION IN VIETNAM AND
ON THE WORLD
1-Research situation in Vietnam
Until now, the researches on public transport and efficiency of
public transport system are mostly achieved form science schemes as
Ministry-level projects No KC10-02 and KHCN 10-02 of Ministry of
Transport and directed by University of Transport and
Communications; or several project funded by international
organization such as Project of improving Vietnamese urban transport
by SIDA in 1994; Master Plan of urban transport in Hanoi and Ho Chi
Minh city by JICA; Research project preparation urban transport
development in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city by World Bank conducted
during 2004 – 2007; Urban bus transportation scheme in Hanoi (2010 -
2020). Besides that, there are several related thesis researching on
efficiency of public transport system in different aspects.
In general, the analyses of urban transportation’s effectiveness
remained incoherent; the effectiveness was presented in several certain
aspects, have not applied to assess specifically to establish orientations
and solutions to improve effectiveness of urban transportation system.
2- Research situation on the world
Researches to assess effectiveness of urban transportation: Richard
Layard and Stephen Glaisteranalyzed benefits and costs of urban
transportation to appraise effectiveness of urban
transportationeffectiveness of urban transportation; Geoff Gardner

3- OBJECTS OF THE THESIS
Based ondomestic and international research results are
concerned, thesis tried to make up and complete both the theoretical
basis and practical of performance efficiency of the public transport
system in urban areas.
Research on existing problems which decrease efficiency of
current bus system. As a result, suggest solutions to improve
performance efficiency of bus system based on combining rationale and
practical of improve performance efficiency.
4- METHODOLOGY OF THE THESIS
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Thesis used several general research methodology such as
dialectical materialism and historical materialism; Specialized
research methodology such as deduction, induction, analysis, synthesis,
comparison and assessment. Moreover, thesis also used several other
methodology such as passenger survey and interview, economical
mathematics, optimizing mathematics.
4- CONTENTS OF THE THESIS
Beside the introduction and conclusion parts, the study report
comprises of 3 chapters which are:
Chapter 1: Rationale and practices to improve performance of
urban transit systems
Chapter 2: Analyze and assess the current efficiency of public
transport system in Hanoi
Chapter 3: Improve efficiency of public transport system in cities
CHAPTER 1: RATIONALE AND PRACTICES TO IMPROVE

1.1.2.2 Characteristics of travel demand: Travel demand is a derived
demand, travel demand could be filled by different vehicles, travel
demand is difficult to replace, price impacted slowly to travel demand,
travel demand is a seasonal and timed demand, travel demand displays
profound social feature
1.1.3 Urban transit system
1.1.3.1 Struture of Urban transit system
- Urban Transport system:including dynamic transport system and
static transport system.
- Urban transit system:including transport modes and vehicles.
1.1.3.2 Characteristics of Urban transit system:High density of road
network; Low traffic speed;High investment and operation cost …
1.2 URBAN PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN URBAN AREA
1.2.1 Definition: Urban public transportation is the combination of all
transport modes and infrastructure serving for vehicle performance and
services supporting for travel demand of citizens.
1.2.2 Role of Urban public transportation:Create relationships
between the areas of the city; Being effective measures to reduce traffic
density on the road; Being primary solutions to improve efficiency of
transport infrastructure; Reduce traffic accidents and reduce pollution;
Contributing to cost savings for society.
1.2.3 Transport modes of Urban public transportation
- Metro/Mass rapid transit (MRT)
- Tramway - Bus
- Monorail - Light rail transit (LRT)
- Trolley bus - Bus rapid transit (BRT)

1.3 RATIONALE FOR EFFECTIVENESS OF URBAN PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION IN URBAN AREA
1.3.1 Rationale of efficiency

Method of cost-benefit analysis
1.3.2.3 Indicator to assess the efficiency of urban public
transporation
a-By state’s view
1- Benefit by saving on infrastructure costs
2- Benefit for society on costs
3- Benefit for environment on costs.
4- Ratio of travel demand satisfy
5- Average total cost for one passenger delivered (
HK
C

)
6- Average subsidy for one passenger (
HK
TG
M
)
b-By public transportation operator’s view
1- Efficiency of inputs
2- Rate of returns of inputs
9

3- Average operating costs for one passenger (C
HK
)
4- Average operating costs for 1 kilometer vehicle operated

be the determined factor of modal shift from private to public transport,
therefore generally improve the efficiency of urban public
transportation system.
1.4 CASE STUDY OF IMPROVE EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC
TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN SEVERAL CITIES ON THE WORLD.
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Streamline planning and spatial development of urban
functional areas. Urban public transport planning becomes the
backbone of land use planning, in public transport planning,
concentrating on urban transit
Develop public transport’s infrastructure insynchronization and
compatibility. Public transport’s infrastructure could be co-financed by
people benefited from increasing property values.
Establish classified transport network clearly (backbone line
operated by MRT or BRT, bus route covered the rest of network)
Cooperate all transport mode with unique agency has
responsibilities in operation and management of public transportation
(PTA).
Applied ITS to operate and manage urban public transportation
system.
Provided information for passenger more accurately and
adequately. Information might be accessed via mobile phone and
internet.
Control the growth of private vehicle by the regulated role of
government.
To conclude, chapter 1 provided an overview of issues relating

HàNội

ĐàNẵng
TP
HCM
CầnThơ

1

Operators 5 9 11 15 1
Number of routes

Route 12 86 5 146 8
Subsidized route

Route

2 67 1 108 -

2

Non- Subsidized
route
Route

10 19 4 39 8
3

Number of
vehicles

8

Subsidy/Passenger VND/pax 510 2093 4008 - -
9

Ratio of travel
demand satisfy
% >1 10 >1 6,5 1,2
2.2 STATUS QUO OF PUBLUC TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN HANOI
2.2.1 Current status of bus network in Hanoi:
There are 86 bus routes: 62 routes in interior of city, bus routes be
responsible for administration officer in Hadong district, 12 non-
subsidy routes, 7 adjacent routes to the surrounding. To classify routes,
tangent-line route made up 48%, diametric and centripetal routes made
up 20% and 27% respectively, circular routes only take around 5%.
With this proportion, the biggest issue is the possibility of duplicating
routes in main corridors, especially in city centre.
2.2.2 Current status of bus vehicles:
There are 3 types of bus: minibus (24 – 30 seats), medium bus (45 – 60
seats) and large bus (from 80 seats).The vehicles are changing
frequently, however, over-5-year-old vehicles still made up high
proportion (over 50%), in contrast, the ratio of under-2-year-old
vehicles is 16% and 2-to-4 year-old is 28%. The bus vehicle are various
on type and operated commonly.
12

2.2.3 Current status of infrastructure
Figure 2.1: Model of government management in public transportation
PUBLIC COMMITEES MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORT
Division of
Transportation
Division of
Vehicle
Management

Division of
Public
transport

Other
division
HANOI TRANSPORT MANAGEMENT AND OPERATION CENTRE
B
a
o Y
e
n

Bus
TRANSERCO

Do
ng Anh


Monthly ticket (single route, multi route) and single ticket are mainly in
paper form. Smart card is only applied in Route No 32.
2.2.6 Performance results of public transport system
Bus network coverage is expanding, passengers increase day-by-
day; Positive contribution in reducing traffic congestion; Increase
passenger load factor; Powerful Innovation in mechanism of bus
operations
2.3
EVALUATING THE EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC
TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN HANOI

2.3.1 Evaluative attitude
2.3.1.1 Government attitude:
Ratio of travel demand satisfied
; Social
benefits from public transport
2.3.1.2 Passenger attitude: Trip duration, Trip costs, the convinience
and safety.
2.3.1.3 Operator attitude:Economical and Financial benefits,
maximum returns.
In the scope of thesis, evaluating
the efficiency of public transport
system based on the
Government attitude and passenger attitude.
2.3.2 Evaluating the efficiency of public transport system in hanoi
2.3.2.1 Gorvenment attitude
a- Ratio of travel demand satisfied:In 2012, public transport served
10,04% travel demand of Hanoi’s citizens, however, comparing to the
target of 30-35% travel demand, the ratio was truly low.
b- Performance efficiency: During 2002 to 2012, the rate of passenger

đ 57,691,139 1 121 258 965 19.4
Saving fuel 10
3
đ 16 838 198 646 261 165 38.4
Reduce treatment costs
for exhausted gas
10
3
đ 813 155 8 102 114 10.0
Benefit/ Cost (*) đ/đ 0.15 0.41 2.8
Benefit/ Subsidy (*) đ/đ 0.31 0.58 1.9
(*):Not to mention benefits by reducing traffic congestion and noise pollution
due to unquantifiable.
15

Efficiency of bus system in Hanoi can bring out to society is
really visible, and the increasing along with the increase in the volume
of passengers using the service
2.3.2.2 Passenger attitude
Thesis calculated Travel time and Travel costs of passenger
using one in 3 type of vehicles: motorbike, private car and bus with
several parameters such as: average distance of passenger is 5,5
kilometres and average daily trip factor is 2,5
Table 2.3: Comparing travel time and travel costs between private
vehicle and public transport
No
Type of vehicle

are few interchange and the connectivity of interchange is ineffective,
the proportion of bus lane is too low.
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* Vehicles:Vehicle degradation, vehicle capacities is not various and
limmited, Environmental standards of vehicle is low, buses are not
friendly to all passengers.
* Management and enforcement: Schedules is not really reasonable,
revenue management is not close, management working is mainly by
administration officer.
* Service quality is only at Acceptance level: Travel time tends to
increase, drivers and attendants disagreeably finished tasks,Security and
safety on the bus is not guaranteed.
* Service for disabled, blind,… is not justified to achieve social
policies
In conclusion, chapter 2 showed the current situation of bus
system in several cities in Vietnam, in which concentrated on analysis
and evaluation the performance efficiency of bus system in Hanoi. As
a result, thesis indicated the weakness which influenced to the bus
system performance. This will be meaningful basis to suggest
solutions to enhance performance efficiency of system in the future.
CHAPTER 3: IMPROVE EFFICIENCY OF PUBLIC
TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN CITIES
3.1 ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT OF TRANSPORT SYSTEM AND
PUBLIC TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN LARGE CITIES IN VIETNAM
3.1.1 Oriented development of urban transportation
3.1.1.1 Development objectives of urban transportation

3.2.1.1 Characteristics of travel demand
High level of passenger capacity created pressure of transport;
Stabilized trips; Passenger flow fluctuated in time period; Trips mostly
is medium and far distance in cities and urban areas.
3.2.1.2 Characteristics of vehicles and traffic situation
Boosted private vehicles and Limitted in road network causes
congestion.
3.2.2 Problems need to developed to operate the public transport
system
Problems need to developed: Trip range; Major vehicles;
Vehicles for one trip; Trip purpose.
Content of public transport system management and operation:
Establish a multimodal public transport system; Restructure bus
system; Provide the service at highest level; Ensure the quality and
reliability
3.2.3
BASIS TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY OF BUS SYSTEM
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Impacts Solutions
Public transport Performance

PT Subsidy
Preferential policies
for suppliers
Reduce investment
for infrastructure

costs
Reduce
operatio
-n costs
Restructure public
transport network
Optimize bus stops
allocation
Plan and design
interchanges
Enforcement
Optimize operation and
management

Traffic
management

High quality
vehicle
Control private
vehicles

Imrprove standards
of environment
Increase
passeng
-er
volume

Reduce


Operator efficiency

State efficiency

Figure
3.1:
Model to improve efficiency of public transport system

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3.3 SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE PEFORMANCE EFFICIENCY OF
BUS SYSTEM
3.3.1. Solutions of infrastructure
3.3.1.1Bus network
a- Determine structure bus network:IncludesAxial route(2000-
4000pax/hour/direction; Main route(1000-2000 pax/hour/direction;
Brach route(350-1000 pax/hour/direction);Feeder route(<350
pax/hour/direction).
b- Restructure bus network
* Period until 2015: Consolidating route network in the form
of combining. Optimizing interchange utilization; Limiting route
opened in centre area to Ring road 3; Redirecting routes; Establishing
more feeder bus using minibus for passenger easily in accessibility;
Establishing several subsidized routes for pupil picking.
* Period of 2016-2020:Delete duplicated of routes; Restructure
bus network integrated to metro/BRT station; Plan provision route for

reduce congestion
Determined bus stops
near junctions

Allocated bus stops

Determined the number
of bus stops
Locating bus stops satisfied conventional targets

Minimizing
travel costs and
operation costs
18

Thesis introduced the method to determine bus stop allocation
ensuring the walking distance is minimum.
Figure 3.3: Determine bus stop allocation
Bus stops will be relocated to minimizing the total walking
distance of all passenger in serving area:
MinbaqL
ij
n
j
m
i
ii

i

: Bus stops

: Trip Gener
ation Location

b
i

a
i

O

C

B

l
o
/2 19

Objective function: The different objects will have different Objective
functions
Passenger’s objectives:Minimum travel time, Minimum travel costs.
Operators’ objectives:Minimum vehicle time, Minimum operating

0
, q
tk
, ɣ, ɳ,… )

Min
a- Establish model of multi optimization to improve performance
efficiency.
* Model of total operating costs of a route
f
1
= C
vh
=
o
oT
oTđcoTotot
c
lVq
lVTtVlLlLP



))((2

Min
* Model of total travel converted costs
f
2
=C

2

3
.2
0
0
00








Min
b- Apply multi optimization problem to find out the optimized
performance parameters
Based on two models, when the parameters of q
tk
,

, l
o
increase,
the total operating costs will decrease, in contrast, the total travel costs
of passenger will increase, therefore there is an contrary between 2
objective functions. Moreover, the fluctuation of other parameter such
V
T


Amount 2460 19,1 2,7 0,0084 0,167 4 5000 24000 4,21 20

With constrains:
0<Ƴ ≤ 1 ; 60 < ≤ 120 ; 0 < V
T
≤ 50 ; 0,2≤ l
o
≤0,8

Figure 3.4: Pareto optimizing Solution interval on Bus route No 32.
c- Determine performance indicators on route
From optimized solutions, thesis adjusted these solutions to
accommondate available vehicle capacity. As a result, thesis choose 3
types of capacity such as 80 seats, 90 seats, 120 seats (double-deck ).
The detaild calculation is as in the following table
Table 3.2: Performance indicators of Bus route No.32
No

solutions optimizing
for the preset
performance
parameters. Thesis
used 9 best-fitting
choices from 90
solutions to define
performance
indicators on Bus
route No.32 21

3.3.3.1 Choosing Vehicle capacity: Axial route will use ultra high
capacity vehicle; Main route will use high capacity vehicle; Branch
route will use medium or small capacity vehicle; Feeder route will use
mini vehicle
3.3.3.2 Apply environmental standards for vehicles:environmental
standards for bus vehicles contribute to improve urban environment;
Bus vehicles invested until 2015 must achieve EURO III standards; Bus
vehicles invested during 2015-2020 must achieve EURO IV standards.
Choose vehicles based on calculated and balanced operating
costs and evironmental treatment costs.
Operating costs:



n
i

hour fee of ares which do not promote to access; Parking fee.
3.3.4.2 Administrative solutions 22

Limited registering for vehicle, Prohibit from registering vehicles
for a certain cycle and for particular people; Forbid driving car
according to areas or time periods.
3.3.4.3 Promotion and Education of Controlling private vehicles
Promotion and Education the usage of private vehicle, increase
the public transport users, decrease traffic density.
3.4. EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOLUTIONS
3.4.1. Economical effectiveness: Reduce the investment for private
vehicle, saving energy for transport, saving operating costs, improve
efficiency of operators, reduce travel costs for society.
3.4.2. Social effectiveness: Deal with congestion in city centres and on
the corridor to satellite cities and on the main junction; Improve safety;
Ensuring the equality of all passenger to access public transport system.
3.4.3 Environmental effectiveness: Minimizing environmental
pollution, protect people’s health, reduce social costs, improve labour
productivity. Saving environmental treatment costs, reduce noise
pollution, rehabilitate ecological environment in urban areas.
To conclude, based on the rationale in chapter 1, conclusion
achieved from status quo analysis in chapter 2, and the oriented
development of public transport system in chapter 3, thesis suggested
several solutions to improve the performance efficiency of bus system,
in particular situation of Hanoi until 2020.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMENDATIONS
CONCLUSIONS:

to improve the performance efficiency of bus system in cities. The new
results are:
- Argued for the needs and basis to improve the performance
efficiency of public transport system.
- Suggested the structure of network to ensure performance
efficiency, presented the process to determine bus stop location based
on optimizing the passenger’s accessibility.
- Using multi optimization method to find out optimized
performance parameters which might be the basis to plan the effective
transportation operation options achieved objectives.
- Suggest several solutions to improve the bus service quality, to
solve the important actual passenger’s issues, such as reliable, safety
and accessibility for all passengers including disabled. This will
become one of the most necessary factors to attract more passenger and
improve efficiency of whole system.
RECOMMENDATION:
Suggested to Government, Urban Area Authorities, State Owned
Agency:
To Government:Affirming that policies of developing public
transport system is the foundation of urban and urban transport