Efficiency evaluation of Iran's railway stations using data envelopment analysis

Railways are considered the efficient transport system that provides the possibility of transportation through a rail network. Railway stations are the major part of the rail transport system and evaluating its performance is of particular importance, since various activities such as passenger transport, and welfare and commercial services are provided in this part of the system. In this research, the efficiency of Iranian railway stations in 19 zones is measured by data envelopment analysis (DEA), and the efficient centers and reference units for inefficient centers have been identified by analyzing the efficiency of stations. Railway stations are analyzed using an output-oriented slack-based measure (SBM) model with a constant returns to scale. The performance of station was evaluated by the input index of total station area, number of platforms, number of staff, number of available seats, total cost of station, output index of number of passengers transported, number of trains stopped, and total revenue of the station. The ranking results showed that Tehran, Mashhad, Shahroud, Zanjan, Qom, and Kerman stations had the highest level of efficiency. Finally, for inefficient stations, the surplus values of inputs and slack values of outputs were provided to improve the efficiency.