Case Study

Research: Customer Assistance in Low Staff Environment

In recent years, the use of self-assistance tools in stations has accelerated – driven by technological development, staff shortages, and reduced face-to-face contact during COVID-19. Considering emerging financial challenges, many metros are now reviewing station staffing models with the aim of improving operational efficiency while maintaining a good customer experience. Changing customer behaviours and staff shortages are key drivers of staff reductions, but there are also other drivers affecting station staffing models such as external policies and levels of crime.

Factors Affecting Station Staffing Models

This study included responses from 31 metros reviewing factors impacting staffing level decisions, customer service challenges in low staff stations, station staffing models, and opportunities to reduce staff. Examples of innovations to reduce staffing requirements across key areas of station staff responsibilities e.g. ticketing and customer information, were also presented, along with best practices carried out by metros and the most impactful tools used by both customers and staff in low staff stations.

Research: Staff Retirement Trends

Managing an ageing workforce is a challenge for many metro operators, with some reporting large waves of retirement where significant numbers of highly qualified and experienced staff are lost. The impact of this on metro operations has been compounded by staff shortages more generally related to recruitment and retention challenges since COVID-19 began. The study included information from 27 metros with regard to their growing staffing concerns and best practices for managing staff retirement.

Metros reported the impacts of retirement, retention and recruitment on staff shortages pre COVID-19, now and in the future. By 2022, almost half (48%) of metros perceived recruitment to be an issue, while retirement was considered a major or minor issue in a quarter of metros (26%) and retention had become an important issue in a third of metros (35%).

A number of measures have been taken by metros to respond to short-term staff shortages, and in the longer term to help retain institutional knowledge. The study identified good practices and actions for mitigating impacts of staff shortages and addressing longer term skills gaps.

Research: Flood Management in Metros

Flood management is an increasingly emerging issue for metros associated with climate change and extreme weather. Most metros are expecting more frequent flooding events of greater severity in the future, and are thus interested in learning from each other on flood prevention and management. This study gathered information from 31 metros and looked into influential factors to flooding, velnerability assessment, and flood prevention and management initiatives.

Managing a flood is similar to incident management more widely. An operational response process starts an alert, an incident is declared, the situation is managed / water is contained, and operations are managed to prioritise safety, maintain service levels where possible, and keep customers informed.

Based on metros’ previous experiences with flooding, the study presented the key lessons learned by metros and their improvements for flood preparation and management. These cover the areas of infrastructure design, operational response, as well as maintenance and inspections.

Research: Fare Evasion

Fare evasion is a highly complex and multfaceted issue faced by metros. Benchmarking of fare evasion rates is included in the annual COMET Key Performance Indicators work, but this is the first time the topic has been studied specifically since 2004. This study looked at fare evasion rates, causes and initiatives across 31 metros.

Summary of high level factors contributing to fare evasion at metros

The study is structured around three key aspects that are directly considered by a passenger when deciding to evade fare payment: how easy it is to breach the system, what the consequences are for getting caught, and the likelihood of getting caught. Increasingly since this topic was last studied, fare evasion is being more widely discussed in the context of social equity and proportionality, where it is seen as symptomatic of wider societal issues that need addressing rather than criminalising the evader themselves.

Research: Sustainable Fares and Funding

Ensuring that metro fare and funding structures are sustainable is vital to cover both short-term operating costs and to continue investment in the metro to maintain service quality for the longer term. The study brought together information from 33 metros to explore how metros set and review fares, to compare fare structures, fare levels and fare products across metros, and to understand how COVID-19 has impacted fares and funding arrangements.

Considerations for setting metro fares

Fare revenue is the largest and most important revenue source for metros. The study builds on previous work in COMET on fares and funding by particularly considering the sustainable element of metro revenue generation, considering important current factors such as rising inflation and prices, fare adjustment mechanisms, and concessionary fare offerings.

Research: COVID-19 Update on Recovery

This express study compiled the latest information from 28 metros regarding their ongoing management of and recovery from the pandemic. This study aimed to understand new policies and practices regarding staff vaccination and testing, assess the impact of recent COVID-19 outbreaks on staff availability, update demand, revenue and cost forecasts for 2022 and share new cost reduction and revenue maximisation initiatives. Key findings included:

  • About a third of metros require some or all staff to conduct COVID testing for work, but most metros encourage regular testing using wider government or public health facilities.
  • Vaccine mandates for metro staff are not yet common with three metros reporting them in place. Metro staff typically have higher vaccination rates than the general public, with a few exceptions.
  • Frontline staff availability continues to remain lower than pre-pandemic, with station staff and train drivers particularly affected.
  • Ridership forecasts are generally being revised downwards from previous estimates as the length and severity of the pandemic continues to cause uncertainty.

COMET has been undertaking a number of short, targeted studies and workshops compiling the latest COVID response and recovery at metros. Other examples include Accommodating Returning Demand, Cost Optimisation, Staff Availability, and supporting the wider Transport Strategy Centre’s multimodal benchmarking review of recent activities.

Research: COVID-19 Accommodating Returning Demand

Metro demand has varied dramatically during the course of the pandemic, and is influenced by a wide range of societal and political factors as much as individual passenger behaviour. However, as cities, regions and countries recover from the most immediate impacts of the pandemic, metros are considering how to accommodate a safe and confident regrowth in demand from its lowest level. There are also new opportunities to respond to changing customer travel patterns and preferences, despite the ongoing challenges presented by COVID-19. This study brought together information from 33 COMET metros to understand:

  • How metros plan to manage crowding particularly while the spread of COVID-19 is still a concern (including ongoing COVID-19 policies and event management) – metros expect that customer attitudes to personal space will change even without formal social distancing requirements. Operational management (i.e. service and staff response in stations, at platforms and trains) will be important as well as supporting customers to choose their travel times.
  • What metros are doing to influence and encourage demand – metros are implementing or considering customer information tools, and fare changes and promotions to attract/reattract/influence customers.
  • Metros’ future service plans – metros are ensuring flexibility is built into service plans to allow for changes in customer demand, for example service frequencies and peak/off-peak adjustments.
Examples of customer information tools developed during the pandemic

Research: Infrastructure Diagnostics

Metro infrastructure is expensive, complex, intensively used, and critical for the safe and reliable provision of metro services. This study brings together information from 26 metros to identify technologies used by metros for automated monitoring of infrastructure (track, power and tunnels) and detection of pre-failure conditions that may enable a shift to condition-based maintenance.

Definitions of maturity in automated monitoring technology

There were four key benefits identified in the study that could be achieved through the
introduction of automated monitoring.

  1. Improved Reliability e.g. increased frequency of measurements, increased
    knowledge of assets and reduced rate of failures for equipment
  2. Changes to Existing Work Practices e.g. changing maintenance frequencies and
    procedures without impact on safety/effectiveness
  3. Labour Hour / Cost Savings e.g. changes to existing work practices leading to greater efficiency and/or productivity
  4. Improved Safety e.g. due to increased reliability; reduced time required in danger
    zone for track workers.

Research: Cleaning Efficiency and Practices

Cleaning has long been an integral part of metro operations, with a focus on manual and resource-intensive methods and following health and safety regulations. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, cleanliness of public transport quickly took on greater prominence, gaining significant political and public interest and becoming a key area for testing and innovation.

Benchmarking of metro cleaning practices offers significant scope for efficiency. Even before COVID-19, cleaning made up almost 5% of an average metro’s operating costs, and as metros begin to recover from the pandemic and attempt to maintain enhanced cleaning standards under constrained budgets, it is essential that metros manage these costs and maximise effectiveness as far as possible.

Factors preventing more effective and efficient cleaning at metros

This study brought together information from 30 metros to explore cleaning trends leading up to the pandemic, including benchmarking on contracts, cleaning hours, and cleaning costs. The study also examined how practices, frequencies and staffing have changed as metros manage COVID-19. Lastly, the study included examples of new techniques, products and practices that have been implemented and found to improve cleanliness outcomes during COVID-19.

Research: COMET Preventing Human Failures in Train Operations and the OCC

There are multiple reasons why metros are particularly affected by human failures, including operations and/or maintenance occurring 24-hours a day, human judgement involved in multiple safety critical situations, and the potential for unpredictable overtime. Across COMET metros, human failure caused the majority of collisions and derailments. Miscommunications and multi-tasking are considered the top two most influential factors on human failures.

The study focused on active human failures that directly lead to incidents. Active failures are categorised into errors and violations, which can be further sub-categorised by the underlying motive, intention, and/or frequency. Understanding active failure types supports greater understanding of the root causes of failure.

Figure to show categorises of active failure consisting of error and violation

The study reviewed strategies for preventing human failure including process, environment, and people-based solutions. One example for preventing human error is assessing fitness for duty among train drivers. Half of metros reported use of a checklist or declaration, with some metros use technology to address fatigue including monitoring attentiveness and encouraging sufficient rest for employees before their shift. While many of these measures are focused on train drivers, increasing automation within metros means that such measures are becoming just as important for OCC staff. Opportunity areas for metros to reduce operational risk of human failures are discussed, supported by good practices and future initiatives conducted by COMET metros.

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