Imperial College London

MrAlexanderBarron

Faculty of EngineeringDepartment of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Associate Director/Head of Metro Benchmarking
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 3974alexander.barron CV

 
 
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Location

 

607Skempton BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Overview

Key research interests in the area of public transport are planning, operations, management, and benchmarking.

Current research projects include overseeing case studies on the topics of using data to improve maintenance, station design guidelines and passenger flow monitoring, security in metro systems, and the management of escalators, as well as the ongoing development of key performance indicators for metros (within the CoMET and Nova metro benchmarking groups) and for light rail systems (within GOAL, the Benchmarking Group of North American Light Rail Systems).

Selected past research projects include:

2015 - Best Practices in Operating Very High Frequency Services Case Study
Case study for the CoMET metro benchmarking group focused on identifying and understanding the variety of constraints that prevent and good practices that enable the operation of very high frequency train service, defined as 30 trains per hour or more. 

2013 - Dwell Time Management Case Study
Case study for the CoMET metro benchmarking group focused on identifying good practices in managing dwell (station stop) times and understanding the key factors influencing them.

2012 - Causal Factors of Cost Case Study
Case study for the Nova metro benchmarking group focused on understanding the costs of metros and identifying strategies to reduce costs.

2011-2012 - Development of a Key Performance Indicator System for Bus and Paratransit Services es in the United States 
Development of a new KPI system for benchmarking bus and paratransit demand-response services within the United States as part of the American Bus Benchmarking Group (ABBG) 

2011-12 – Improving Incident Response and Recovery Case Study
Case study for the CoMET metro benchmarking group focused on identifying best practices in metros’ response to and recovery from incidents in order to help metros minimize both the time that train services are disrupted and the time it takes to restore normal service following an incident. 

2011 – Service Control and Route Management Case Study
Case study for the International Bus Benchmarking Group (IBBG) focused on profiling service control and route management functions at bus operators and identifying best practices leading to successful service control and route management, including dealing with service disruptions and roadworks.   

 2011 – Customer Service Case Study
Case study for the Nova metro benchmarking group focused on identifying best practices in a variety of customer-related areas.  The study examined metros’ commitment to customer service, their use of customer-facing staff, customer interfaces (such as information systems and ticket machines), and the ways in which customers can provide input to operations. 

2010-2011 – Station and Platform-Train Interface Safety Case Study
Case study for the CoMET metro benchmarking group focused on identifying best practices in improving safety in stations and at the platform-train interface, which have been identified as the most critical areas for metro safety.  Specifically, the study looked in-depth at vertical circulation, passenger flow, and the use of platform doors. 

2010-2011 – Information During Disruptions Case Study
Case study for the CoMET metro benchmarking group focused on identifying best practices in the management and provision of information during disruptions to metro services, with emphasis on the growing demand for real-time information through advanced technologies.   

2010-11 - Development of a Key Performance Indicator System for Suburban Railways
Development of a new KPI system for suburban rail benchmarking within ISBeRG (the International Suburban Rail Benchmarking Group) 

 2010 – Train Service Reliability Case Study
Case study for the Nova metro benchmarking group focused on identifying the most important factors affecting the reliability of metro train services, including both network- and line-level analyses of the factors affecting service reliability.