TRAVEL BEHAVIOR AND RESPONSES TO CHANGE IN TRANSIT FARE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF URBAN RAIL PASSENGERS BETWEEN BANGKOK AND MANILA

Abstract

Bangkok City, Thailand and Metro Manila, Philippines each have three urban rail systems. Such rail systems aim to help alleviate the traffic congestion and provide more accessibility and convenience of mass transportation to commuters. The urban rail systems in both areas are different from each other but the city setting is quite similar in terms of traffic congestion and population density. Comparing all three urban rail systems in Bangkok and Manila, the transit fare for Bangkok rails are quite high and wide-ranging compared to the very low transit fare offered in the Manila rail counterparts. This study focuses on evaluating and comparing the characteristics of the urban rail system infrastructure and passengers in both cities. Using the concept of price elasticity we demonstrated the sensitivity of urban rail passengers when a change in transit fare is implemented. Fare elasticity values obtained were found to be -2.537 and -2.051 for the Bangkok and Manila rails, respectively, implying that the responsiveness of Bangkok rail users were higher compared to the Manila rail users when a price change is implemented. A modified Price Sensitivity Measurement (PSM), Kishi’s Logit PSM (KLP), was also used to determine reasonable price range for transit fare in both urban rail systems. Results indicated that Manila rail transit fares could be increased, while Bangkok rail systems already had a reasonable fare setting.