Principal Investigator Nigel Wilson
Within the past 3 years, the current Dept of Mobility and Land Use of Diputacion Foral de Gipuzkoa (in the Basque region of Spain), assumed responsibility and control of its interregional bus services by establishing contracts with the previously unsubsidized, lightly regulated, private bus operators. During the first year a new contactless smart card, was designed and implemented and new GPS equipment was installed in the bus fleet. MIT has begun a 3-year research project based on the real time information provided by the Lbus contactless card. The goal is to assist Gipuzkoa in establishing innovative, data-driven bus planning and operations procedures that will lead to a more customer-focused set of services in the region and a solid analytical basis upon which to make future transportation investment decisions. In parallel MIT is analyzing the opportunities presented by the new High Speed Rail system, currently under construction in the region. The original radial nature of the HSR connecting the three Basque region capitals to Madrid, creates a sub-network in the shape of a Y among the three local capitals. This so called Basque Y can be thought of as a Super Metro linking those three cities with a travel time of approximately 30 minutes. Research on this topic focuses on:
(*) Relative advantages of two locations of the HSR Terminal station in San Sebastian
(*) Accessibility of the HSR to Bilbao international airport in order to increase its catchment area and the number of flights to other European capitals
(*) Operational options for the Super Metro in terms of service frequency and fares in order to create a de facto single capital thanks to their combined higher critical mass