An Effectiveness of Flexible Seat Class Assignment on Intercity Express Trains

Abstract

Most of intercity express trains in Japan supply different seat classes, (1) reserved seat, where passengers are completely guaranteed to have seating, (2) non-reserved seat, where passengers can sit anywhere if it is available. The number of respective seat class is usually fixed. The study tries to develop the flexible seat class assignment simulation system through some case studies. The study finds that this flexible assignment is effective in these aspects, (1) improving the efficiency of the facility utilization, (2) increasing the utility of passengers by decreasing the number of rejection for reservation requests, (3) increasing revenue for railway companies.