Required Characteristics of the Ticketing Systems for Reservation-Compulsory Commuting Railways

Abstract

The “Reservation-Compulsory Commuting Railways” is a concept the author has been proposing to eliminate congestion on board a commuting train. The congestion-free commute can be realised by combining ideas for ultra-high-frequency train operations and the ability to control passenger behaviour in a railway system through the “reservation-compulsory” policy. However, to maximise utilisation of capacity, the ticketing system that issues and maintains reservation must be highly “flexible”, i.e., seat arrangements for passengers who have not been on board the services they reserved yet should be able to be changed at any time. In this paper, the author discusses the requirements for the ticketing system that realises the “flexibility” necessary for the realisation of reservation-compulsory commuting railways, mainly through discussions on the existing ticketing systems and the IPASS ticketing system concept, which the author has proposed in the 1990s as the “ideal system”.