Abstract

This paper discusses a model for identifying demand-oriented urban rail transit corridor on a city road network, using geographical information system (GIS) tools. The model is part of a study to develop a demand-oriented attractive and integrated urban mass transit system for a city which has a potential demand for a new rail-based mass transit system besides the street transit system and existing rail-based system (if any). The objective of the study is to identify
the new rail corridor, which is optimum from both users' and operator's point of view. The rail corridor is to be aligned to allow the user to travel through shortest path, with the levelof-service comparable to private vehicle. It is also aligned on high demand corridors to give maximum revenues to the operator. Thane City, which is a part of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) India, was taken as the case study. The corridors were identified based on the demand obtained using user equilibrium approach, which consists of two routes, the maximum peak hour ridership on these routes was found to be 34,369 pphpd, which is ideal
for recommending light rail transit system for the identified corridors. The successful application of the model shows the capability of the proposed model for a typical Indian city, which has potential demand for a new rail system. It also proves the capability of GIS for application to such problems.

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