The evaluation of new local rail stations in West Yorkshire

Between 1982 and 1984 six new stations were opened on passenger railways in West Yorkshire whilst additional sites were being considered. The aim of this thesis is to assess and evaluate demand at the six existing and up to 28 potential new stations in West Yorkshire. This involved three inter-related strands of research. Firstly, market research was carried out at the six new stations opened and was particularly useful in determining the proportions of travellers generated and abstracted. Secondly, statistical models, based on aggregate simultaneous and disaggregate mode split structures, were developed and their forecasting abilities assessed. In this part of our work a subsidiary aim emerged; namely to assess the trade-off between complexity and accuracy in modelling new station demand. Thirdly, an evaluation framework, using one set of demand forecasts, was developed, taking into account the costs and benefits to Public Transport operators, new station users and society as a whole. It was found that the six new stations opened in West Yorkshire may be judged a success in both financial and social terms, whilst up to 10 sites were identified as representing good social investments. In terms of our subsidiary aim it was found that, given limited resources, simple modelling approaches, such as provided by an aggregate simultaneous model, may be preferable to more complex approaches when evaluating small-scale new station programmes. Our findings are shown to have implications beyond West Yorkshire as simple guide lines for new station site identification and evaluation have been determined.