Competitiveness Analysis of Train with Public and Private Vehicles (Case Study of Tehran – Parand)

Commuter rail are a kind of passenger rail transport system used for the purpose of transferring small towns or midway town’s travelers to metropolises or connecting sub urban to the centers of those cities. In this research, the analysis of the competitiveness of commuter rail with non-rail public and personal transportation vehicles such as public bus, taxi and own vehicle, which are used as a choice of individuals, were studied and the case study is Tehran-Parand route that was selected. For this purpose, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was utilized. The criteria used in this study were selected based on their impact on the choice of vehicle type including travel safety, traveling time, travel cost, comfortable, reliability and easily accessible. Simple statistical sampling method is used to collect data from the statistical population based on the Cochran formula for the infinite society, the optimal sample size in this study was defined 96 persons. A preferential judgment was made by the comparing decision criteria and transport options with a survey of users of Tehran-Parand transport systems. As results, the matrix of pairwise comparisons of criteria and transport options based on criteria decision was made and then their relative weights were calculated using Excel and Expert Choice software. The results showed that suburban train option was the first option for choosing user-centric Tehran-Parand with 37.99 percent and next option, is own vehicle with 34.86 percent as the second option of users choice and taxi with 15.83 percent as the third option of users choice as well as ultimately the bus with 11.32% is considered as the fourth option of users choice for named axis.