Understanding commercial synergies between public transport and services located around public transport stations

Abstract

The public transport system integrates a complex ecosystem, composed not only by transport operators and travellers but also by other services such as schools, firms, restaurants, museums, banks, and public establishments. Therefore, by adopting a holistic point of view, we propose a new service approach linking city services and public transport. This approach consists in partnerships that may include discounts, combined packages, reduced prices, deals and marketing campaigns, targeted to each specific audience. In order to develop these partnerships it is important to analyse the services located around the stations and the public transport usage. We use the city of Porto, Portugal, as an illustrative example and we rely on two data sources: Automated Fare Collection system data and business data points. The analysis of both datasets allowed us to determine the level of concentration of city services located around public transport stations and to identify the types of services that tend to agglomerate near the stations. We were also able to analyse the correlation between the number of travel card validations and the number of services located around the stations. Finally we present a case of a service exposure to different demographic segments.