A Quick Assessment Technique to Determine Profitability in Private City-Bus-Services – Case Study Kolkata-Howrah Urban Area, India

Public transport system must be profitable to the private operators without government subsidy or intolerable rise in bus fare to ensure efficient mobility in a third world city. However, a populist but not so affluent government is unwilling either to subsidize or raise the bus fare, thereby forcing private players to withdraw or compromise with the level of service and the commuters are badly affected. Present research aims to strike a balance. A study on private city-bus services has been conducted in Kolkata-Howrah urban area which incorporates data on route, operation and financial system. A multiple linear regression is used on a combinatorial basis which indicates that five attributes, namely, route-length, number of days a bus operates in a month, average passenger per day, average fare and legal cost contributes significantly in computing service profitability. Thus, the decision makers may adopt the tool for quick assessment of profitability in the constraint domain of operation of existing and new bus routes.