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Problem. Currently, there is no universal approach to improve the efficiency of the urban public transport operation. Different methods are used during the estimation of public transport operation cost and the quality of services for the passengers. It makes actual the development of the target function which will allow assessing the carrier cost and passenger expenditures, and therefore find the balance between the interests of these parties of the transportation process. Thus, the alternative to the existing approaches can be created and then used to organize passenger transportation and improve transport enterprise management. Development of this alternative is the actual task as the new target function will open the horizon to improve the methods of organization of public transport operation. Goal. The new approach to optimize the costs of public transport operation needs to be tested for the appropriateness for the planning of passenger service in cities. Methodology. The developed target function was derived as the result of the analysis of the economic and social factors influencing the efficiency of the urban public transport operation. Results. The use of the developed target function allows finding the optimal values of cost components for the passenger and the carrier. Originality. The obtained function to optimize the performance of public transport allows reducing the costs of suboptimal use of vehicles capacity, suboptimal allocation of the vehicles to the routes and the irrational organization of vehicles operating on the routes. Practical value. The results of the research clarify the controlled and uncontrolled parameters of the public transport system operation.

Problem. Currently, there exist two main types of service on public transport routes – headway-based and timetable-based. They differ by the frequency of service at the stops and by the information available for passengers. The required frequency of service significantly affects transport operator costs and passenger travel time which, in turn, influences the cost for a passenger. One of the ways to reduce costs for both parties of the transportation process is to make a reasonable choice of the type of service or switch between the types during the day depending on the passenger flow volume. Goal. In the paper, to justify the choice of between the types of service, the cost of public transport vehicles operation and the losses of passenger travel times are taken into account. Methodology. The developed way of making a choice about the type of service allows increasing the efficiency of urban public transport due to reducing the passenger waiting time by switching from the headway-based service in rush hours to timetable-based service in the periods of passenger flow volume decline. Results. The relationship allowing making a decision about the type of service on the route is developed. It allows to correctly introduce the type of service which will ensure the balance between the transport operator and passenger costs. Originality. The developed approach to make a decision on the type of service allows reducing the passenger waiting time by switching from headway-based service in rush hours to the timetable-based service in the periods of decline in passenger flow volume during the day. Practical value. The results of the research based on the survey data allowed estimating the numerical value of the headway at which it is expedient to switch to the timetable-based service.

An approach to estimate the reliability of urban passenger transport from the passengers' viewpoint has been presented, in which the parameter to be investigated is the fixed-route headway. The probability of passenger arrival to the destination point has been suggested as an indicator of the service reliability. The given approach makes it possible to evaluate the reliability of both single modes of the urban mass transit and the transportation system reliability as a whole.