Dynamic Capacity Management

人们喜欢坐火车旅行。铁路网提供的旅客人次和客运里程是20年前的两倍，增长速度超过了人口增长等外部驱动因素。然而，铁路网受到了限制。额外的铁路车辆和基础设施既昂贵又交付缓慢。为了吸引和留住新乘客，这是政府如果要达到2050年净零目标所必需的，该行业需要找到方法，通过增加对非高峰服务的使用来腾出高峰服务的空间。与此同时，世界正在发生变化。技术使人们能够远程工作，或在多个工作岗位上工作，许多人不再像传统的周一至周五朝九晚五的工作日那样工作。定期但间歇性出行的通勤者面临着一个严峻的选择，要么是季票的便利，需要一大笔预付款，要么是有效地为他们永远不会使用的旅程买单，或者是不太方便，价格相对更高的替代方案。这种定价结构似乎对许多人不公平，而且对女性构成压倒性的不利地位，女性占兼职劳动力的大多数。动态容量管理将这些因素结合在一起。它将通过引入公用事业风格的票务，首次调整出行模式并奖励特定的选择，帮助最大限度地利用现有运力。乘客将可以通过按月订阅的方式获得年度季票的物有所值，从而避免了巨额预付款。他们将获得最划算的票价和随时随地的便利，可以选择在下个月不旅行的天数和/或使用特定服务的情况下获得折扣。火车运营商可以更好地利用现有资产，在几乎不增加成本的情况下增加收入。他们还获得了在网络中断时动态管理需求的潜力。动态容量管理将以现实世界试验的见解为基础。

People like to travel by train. The railway network delivers double the number of passenger journeys and passenger kilometres it did 20 years ago, growth which has outperformed external drivers such as population growth. However, the rail network is constrained. Additional rolling stock and infrastructure are both expensive and slow to deliver. To attract and retain new passengers, which is needed if the Government is to reach its net zero 2050 target, the industry needs to find ways to free up space on peak services by increasing use of off-peak ones. Meanwhile the world is changing. Technology enables people to work remotely, or at multiple jobs, and many people no longer work the traditional working week of 9-5, Monday to Friday. Commuters who travel regularly but intermittently face a stark choice between the convenience of a season ticket, requiring a large up-front payment, and effectively paying for journeys they’ll never use, or less convenient and proportionally higher priced alternatives. This pricing structure appears unfair to many and overwhelmingly disadvantages women, who make up the majority of the part-time workforce. Dynamic Capacity Management brings these factors together. It will help maximise use of existing capacity by introducing utility-style ticketing that for the first time adjusts to travel patterns and rewards particular choices. Passengers will have access to the value for money of an annual season ticket via a monthly subscription, thereby avoiding the large up-front fee. They will have the assurance of the best value fares and tap-anytime convenience with the option to secure reductions against the next month’s subscription for days they don’t travel and/or when they use specified services. Train Operators get better utilisation of their existing assets, with increased revenue for little extra cost. And they gain the potential to dynamically manage demand in response to network disruption. Dynamic Capacity Management will be grounded by the insights of a real-world trial.