An Analysis of Users’/Customers’Perceptions of the Nigerian Rail Transport Services

Rail transport has and continues to play a key role in the movement of goods and passengers in many countries around the world including Nigeria.However,while rail transport continues to enjoy relative importance in terms of investment,growth and contribution to the national economy in several countries,it has suffered and declined(in terms of modal share contribution which has led to decreased patronage)in Nigeria.However,there are new developments and investment on rail and some measures are being put in place to revive the Nigerian rail transport system.As these new developments and rehabilitations are going on,it will be imperative to know what the users/customers think as well,so that they are not left out because under normal circumstances,customers need transport services and not rail transport services.Therefore,if they were not satisfied with rail transport services they would simply turn to other modes of transport.As part of an on-going PhD research project,this paper focuses on the perceptions of Nigerian rail transport users/customers regarding the quality of rail services provided.Data was collected by the use of structured/semi-structured questionnaires,which were distributed,to the respondents.The study sample included 474 respondents between the age range of 20-70 out of which just 21(4.4%)have used rail transport;this low patronage figure is as a result of the long time neglect of the Nigerian rail transport system while 474(100%)of the correspondents use road transport daily which has led to an increasing pressure on road transport and infrastructures.Data was collected respectively from the following cities:Lagos,Warri,Ughelli and Benin.

A time-space network-based model for transportation service optimization of China Railway Express

This paper describes the development and optimization plans for the China Railway Express(CR Express).As a new type of international land transport organization,CR Express has emerged with the continuous expansion of China toward European investment and trade,and in particular,has expanded with the continuous progress of the One Belt and One Road(OBOR)initiative.In addition to improving the service quality of CR Express,the operating costs must be reduced for developing“smart railways”that serve“smart cities”.We propose a dualobjective-based function mathematical optimization model;the satisfaction of the cargo owner is considered,and the timeliness,transportation capacity,and goods category constraints of CR Express transportation are designed.Moreover,we present the normalized equivalent method of the two-objective function of the model.Finally,a case study is conducted against the background of certain trains in the western corridor of CR Express to validate the effectiveness of the model and research methods proposed in this study.

Econometric Analysis of Transport Sector on Economic Growth in Rwanda (1999-2018)

The purpose of this study was to examine Econometric analysis of transport sector on economic growth in Rwanda for the period of 1999 up to 2018. It’s an empirical study which used econometric techniques such as unit root test, Engle granger test/cointegration test, linear regression model and the error correction model to analyze the contribution of transport sector on economic growth based on Gross Capital formation in terms of transport infrastructures, trade balance as import and export can be affected by transport system, and contribution of transport services to economic growth. This study found that, there was a strong statistically significant relationship between GDP and transport sector as measured by transport services for both short run and long run as it is shown by R-squared of 0.997316 and 0.782009 of the long run regression model and error correction model respectively. ECM showed a quick recovery of 81.3% every year after a shock happen. This study concluded that there is a short run and long run relationship between Transport service and economic growth. This study recommends that policy implication that can be deducted from this study to facilitate transport sector through expansion of road networks and maintenance of existing road networks coupled with revitalization of alternative mode of transportation such as air transport, rail system and waterways will significantly improve the growth of the

Research on service arrangement of taking senior citizens to hospital based on Customers＇ Satisfaction

In the transportation service, customers＇ specially ordered time window is not always strictly obeyed and deviation of service time from customer-ordered time window determine customers＇ satisfaction degree, which can be quantified by satisfactory function. And improved saving algorithm is proposed to solve the multi-objective model. A case study is also presented to verify effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

Automatic License Plate Recognition System for Vehicles Using a CNN

Automatic License Plate Recognition(ALPR)systems are important in Intelligent Transportation Services(ITS)as they help ensure effective law enforcement and security.These systems play a significant role in border surveillance,ensuring safeguards,and handling vehicle-related crime.The most effective approach for implementing ALPR systems utilizes deep learning via a convolutional neural network(CNN).A CNN works on an input image by assigning significance to various features of the image and differentiating them from each other.CNNs are popular for license plate character recognition.However,little has been reported on the results of these systems with regard to unusual varieties of license plates or their success at night.We present an efficient ALPR system that uses a CNN for character recognition.A combination of pre-processing and morphological operations was applied to enhance input image quality,which aids system efficiency.The system has various features,such as the ability to recognize multi-line,skewed,and multifont license plates.It also works efficiently in night mode and can be used for different vehicle types.An overall accuracy of 98.13%was achieved using the proposed CNN technique.