Journal of Public Transportation Vol 15 #1
Academic journals in general are ridiculously expensive, and often only available in university libraries. JPT is a welcome exception and is free for anyone to download as a pdf file. I get an email when a new issue is available.
Below I have cut and pasted the Table of Contents for Volume 15 No 1, 2012
In view of the lively debates that break out here in the comments sections whenever transit is mentioned, I trust that readers will benefit from the information from the National Centre for Transit Research at the University of South Florida
Should Transit Serve the CBD or a Diverse Array of Destinations?
A Case Study Comparison of Two Transit Systems
Jeffrey R. Brown, Gregory L. Thompson……………………………………………………………..1An Approach to Calculate Overall Efficiency of Rolling Stock
for an Urban Rail Transit System
Qamar Mahboob, Thomas Stoiber, Stephanie Gottstein, Antonios Tsakarestos…….19Assessment of Models to Estimate Bus-Stop Level Transit Ridership
using Spatial Modeling Methods
Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Mahesh Agurla………………………………………………………………….33Transit Coordination in the U.S.: A Survey of Current Practice
Charles Rivasplata, Adam Smith, Hiroyuki Iseki ……………………………………………………..53
Bus or Rail: An Approach to Explain the Psychological Rail Factor
Milena Scherer, Katrin Megel Dziekan…………………………………………………………………..75
The Impact of Weather on Bus Ridership in Pierce County, Washington
Victor W. Stover, Edward D. McCormack……………………………………………………………….95
The Potential Role of Flexible Transport Services in Enhancing
Rural Public Transport Provision
Nagendra R. Velaga, John D. Nelson, Steve D. Wright, John H. Farrington……………..111Are Smart Card Ticketing Systems Profitable?
Evidence from the City of Trondheim
Morten Welde………………………………………………………………………………………………….133
Stephen Rees's blog 
I was especially interested by the article on transit smart cards.
The advantage for the user is that a card can be loaded with e-money for small purchases and pay-as-you go for trips outside the zone(s) used daily, and also for at least 2 monthly passes (usually subscribed to on a yearly basis in France as this gives a discount of 1 month in most towns, 2 in some). 1 pass will be for the urban transit, the other for the commuter train or bus.
It seems to me that there are savings for a city the transit system when several towns in one region use the same type of card. This is what happen in France and in Japan. It is especially relevant in France, and should be in Canada, as it allows small towns to have a transit system with the same bells and whistles as much bigger towns.
If we were doing the same not only Metro Vancouver but also Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox etc. would use the same card. This doesn’t mean users would have the same monthly pass, only that when someone from Victoria comes to Vancouver they would use their card and pay trips within Vancouver at a discount versus paying cash. If they came to Vancouver often enough they could load their card with X single trip tickets.
Japan has a different scale…the Kansai region alone (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and a whole bunch of other towns in between and around those better known ones) has just over 20 millions people. Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto have subway systems and buses of courses. There are also 6 railway companies. One (JR) is country wide, the other 5 only service the Kansai. At rush hours all the trains are packed solids (and they are heavy duty trains). A dream for transit fans…
Other articles are a bit too technical and I wonder if they are realistic in their findings. For example I read several times—somewhere else— that Whistler Transit system as MORE passengers per hour per km than TransLink. I am sure that this true mathematically but it is not helpful.
Red frog
April 18, 2012 at 11:45 am
Where is the edit button!!
I started the paragraph about transit in Japan meaning to say that transit smart cards have allowed transit users there Japan to easily use the several transit providers–all private companies– that they encounter on a basic trip from home to work, school, shopping etc. then the phone rang, I posted and cried at my mistake…..
There are Japanese internet sites that one can use to find schedules and prices of not only long distance trains but also a local trip. They automatically give several options, including using several systems and walking. Not only they give the price of a single trip but also the price of a commuter pass for 1 month/ 3 month/ 6 months, the last option being the cheapest. .
Red frog
April 18, 2012 at 8:28 pm