Scientific paper ID 785 : 2013/3

Planning of the railway station locations in integrated passenger transport is a multicriteria problem. By analyzing previous research on that subject it has been observed that in most of the cases researchers are using optimization method with just one criterion in order to determine the railway station location. The goal of this research is to find a methodology capable of solving this problem from a multicriteria perspective. The solutions that are obtained by an optimization method using just one criterion can be compared and evaluated by another method and an additional set of criteria defined by the stakeholders involved in the process of railway station location planning. The selection of the interested parties mostly depends on the relationship between the government, infrastructure manager and railway operators. In this research the interested parties are users, infrastructure manager and railway operators. For multicriteria evaluation it is possible to use the analytic hierarchy process since it can compare the qualitative and quantitative criteria. Using AHP it is possible to rank the relevance of each criterion considering the goal of the research. Defined criteria can be compared regarding solutions obtained by the optimization method. The output of the evaluation process is a rank of solutions – such as railway station locations and stops obtained by the optimization algorithm. Sensitivity analysis regarding criteria priorities and their number has been conducted on the output of the evaluation process.