Performance evaluation in passenger transportation: what are relevant measures?

Abstract

Measuring and monitoring the performance and productivity of passenger transportation has become a popular activity within public and private transit organisations. This lecture evaluates some of the indicators of performance that are widely used. We emphasise the need for data suitable for monitoring the performance of a single operator (i.e. what does the operator want to know to make operational decisions?) as well as data required for industry-based investigations. The contributions based on the economic interpretation of performance (i.e. measures of partial and total factor productivity) have tended to be industry-wide; however the need for translation down to individual operations is essential if the industry is to accept the new more relevant yet more complex measures of performance. Simple mapping procedures are available to implement the economist's approach at the operator level. To highlight some of the practical problems associated with selection of measures of performance we draw on data collected in Australia in the context of private transit. Items of particular interest include the measurement of the cost of capital, the composition of labour, and heterogeneity of output. We highlight the potential for misleading inference from univariate measures of performance.