An Introduction to the TCQSM

OVERVIEW

What Is the Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual?

The Transit Capacity and Quality of Service Manual (TCQSM) is a reference document that
provides current research-based guidance on the following topics:
• Evaluating quality of service, reflecting how passengers perceive the quality of the transit
service offered and provided, while also considering the transit provider’s needs and
objectives.
• Measuring transit capacity, speed, and reliability, and the factors that influence them—
these are important operational concepts that ultimately affect the cost of providing transit
service and the demand to use the service.
• Sizing elements of transit stops and stations—for example, platform areas, fare
collection elements, and passenger and vehicle circulation elements.
• Guidance on ways to positively influence all of the above, including their potential
effects on operations, operating costs, and existing ridership demand.

Who Might Use the TCQSM?

The TCQSM has a relatively broad scope and is intended for use by a range of practitioners,
including transit planners, transportation planners, traffic engineers, transit operations personnel,
design engineers, management personnel, teachers, and university students. Because the TCQSM is
a reference work, it is expected that users will only apply the portions that directly relate to their
particular needs, rather than read the manual cover to cover. The manual’s concepts and guidance
material is intended to be usable by the full range of TCQSM readers, while its computational
methods generally require some technical background, typically university-level training or
technical work in a public agency or consulting firm.

How Can the TCQSM Be Applied?

The TCQSM has many potential applications, and provides “Applications” sections within its
methodological chapters that describe how the methods can be applied to address real-world
transit operations, planning, and design needs. Example applications include the following:
• Training. The manual’s concepts chapters provide an introduction to transit modes,
operations, and quality of service to readers new to the transit industry. Potential users
include new agency employees in their first job in the transit agency, new transit agency
board members, consulting staff who have not previously worked on transit projects, and
university students and professors.

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 • Reference. The manual is filled with useful information that can be looked up as needed.
Examples include service times associated with different fare collection methods, areas
taken up by persons carrying large objects, ridership responses to changes in quality of
service, and a comprehensive transit glossary.
• Guidance. The manual provides guidance on a number of topics within its scope, including
potential applications and effects of transit preferential treatments and operational tools
(for example, transit signal priority, curb extensions, and stop consolidation), the role of
simulation in operations analysis, and ways to design transit systems to accommodate
future growth.
• Service Standards Development. The TCQSM’s quality of service material is presented in a
manner that facilitates the development of passenger-focused service standards. Quality of
service tables for different factors (service frequency, passenger loading, etc.) describe both
the passenger and transit operator perspectives associated with different service levels, and
the accompanying text describes the potential ridership and operating cost implications of
changes in quality of service.
• Service Evaluation. TCQSM methods can be used to diagnose and treat operational issues.
The manual also provides standard definitions of quality of service–related performance
measures that can be used for one-time service evaluations, incorporated into an agency
performance-measurement program, or used as a part of a peer review process.
• What-If Questions. The manual’s methods can be used to evaluate the transit operations
and quality of service impacts of potential changes (e.g., introducing a new fare-collection
system or developing a bus lane on a street). The manual’s concepts material can be used to
support an agency’s response to service-related questions (e.g., from passengers, board
members, or the media); it can also be used by transit and planning agencies to identify
issues to consider when contemplating introducing new transit modes or service types.
• Planning. The manual’s contents support both sketch-planning applications, providing
quick, approximate answers about the expected operational performance and quality of
service of a particular mode or alternative (via graphs and tables), or more precise answers,
using the manual’s computational methods. Potential uses include transit development
plans, long-range transportation plans, and alternatives analyses.
• Design. The TCQSM’s computational methods can be used to support a variety of transit
design activities, including sizing transit centers (e.g., number of bus bays to provide),
designing BRT service (e.g., platform length needed to meet a given ridership demand using
a particular type of vehicle while providing a specified quality of service), and sizing
passenger circulation elements of new and remodeled transit stations.

What Tools are Available to Support the TCQSM?

The TCQSM is much more than a printed book. The CD-ROM that accompanies the TCQSM
provides PDF versions of all the TCQSM chapters for use on tablets and computers, a reference
library containing all of the TCRP reports referenced in the TCQSM, spreadsheets that help perform

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the calculations used in the bus, ferry, and rail transit capacity methods, and narrated presentations
that introduce the manual and its core material.

CONTENTS

Organization

The TCQSM 3rd Edition consists of 12 chapters, divided into four main topic areas: (a)
introduction, (b) concepts, (c) methods, and (d) reference material, as illustrated below:

Introduction Chapter

The introduction chapter (Chapter 1) provides a concise guide to the TCQSM:

• Section 1 describes how to use the manual.
• Section 2 presents the manual’s purpose, scope, and intended users.
• Section 3 describes the contents of each chapter.
• Section 4 highlights the changes made in the 3rd edition.
• Section 5 describes companion documents to the TCQSM.

Concepts Chapters

The three concepts chapters present concepts, define important terms, and provide illustrations
of the extent to which various factors inside and outside a transit agency’s control influence transit
capacity, speed, reliability, and quality of service.
• Chapter 2, Mode and Service Concepts, introduces the major transit modes addressed by
the TCQSM—bus transit, demand-responsive transit (DRT), rail transit, and ferry transit—

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 along with their submodes (e.g., streetcar, light rail, heavy rail, commuter rail, aerial tram)
and the types of vehicles used for service. The chapter also describes route and network
service patterns for fixed-route and DRT services.
• Chapter 3, Operations Concepts, is all about transit speed, capacity, and reliability and
how various factors in and out of a transit agency’s control influence them. The chapter first
defines speed, capacity, and reliability. It then describes how passenger demand patterns,
dwell time, operating environment (right-of-way type), and stop and station characteristics
affect speed, capacity, and reliability, and the chapter presents a series of graphs illustrating
the relative impacts of various factors on transit capacity and speed
• Chapter 4, Quality of Service Concepts, describes the many roles transit plays within a
community and the different perspectives that different stakeholders bring when
considering the performance of transit service. Quality of service focuses on the passenger
perspective. This chapter presents the important quality of service factors that have been
identified by research, introduces the quality of service framework used in Chapter 5, and
describes how changes in quality of service affect both ridership and service costs.

Methods Chapters

The six methods chapters provide a combination of mode-specific concepts information,

computational methods for evaluating a variety of performance measures related to transit
operations and quality of service, guidance on potential applications of the methods, and worked
examples of performing calculations:
• Chapter 5, Quality of Service Methods, provides methods, applications, and examples of
evaluating fixed-route and general public demand-response transit availability, comfort,
and convenience from the passenger and operator perspectives. The chapter also presents a
method for evaluating transit service quality on a street as part of a multimodal evaluation
that also considers automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian service quality.
• Chapter 6, Bus Transit Capacity, begins with bus-specific operations concepts and
descriptions of infrastructure treatments and operational measures that can improve bus
operational performance. Subsequent sections provide computational methods for
evaluating bus capacity and speed and general information on potential causes of bus
unreliability.
• Chapter 7, Demand-Responsive Transit, describes the factors that influence DRT
capacity, presents four potential approaches for estimating the number of vehicles and
vehicle service hours required to serve a given demand for DRT service, and points readers
to several sources for estimating DRT demand.
• Chapter 8, Rail Transit Capacity, begins with sections on rail-specific capacity concepts
and primers on train control and signaling and train operations. Computational methods
are provided for estimating the capacity of various modes and configurations of rail transit
systems, including guidance on measuring or estimating input values used by the methods.

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 • Chapter 9, Ferry Transit Capacity, starts with sections describing the aspects of ferry
service, facilities, scheduling, and service planning that are unique to the mode.
Computational methods are provided for estimating the number of ferry vessels per hour
that a dock or berth can accommodate, along with the number of passengers and autos that
can be carried on board vessels.
• Chapter 10, Station Capacity, begins with a discussion of three important themes: access
for persons with disabilities, emergency evacuation, and security. The chapter describes the
range of transit stops and stations that exist and their typical features, the variety of
passenger circulation features found within stations, and methods for evaluating and sizing
those features. The chapter also describes options for transit vehicle, private vehicle, and
bicycle circulation and storage outside of stations.

Reference Chapters and Supporting Material

Two chapters at the end of the manual provide reference material supporting the rest of the
manual. Chapter 11, Glossary and Symbols, provides a comprehensive transit glossary along with
a list of the variables used in the TCQSM’s computational methods. Chapter 12, Index, as its name
suggests, provides an index to the manual.
As mentioned previously, a CD-ROM accompanies the manual, providing PDF versions of the
chapter files, computational spreadsheets, a reference library containing links to the TCRP reports
related to TCQSM topics, and training and promotional material. In addition, the TRB Committee on
Transit Capacity and Quality of Service maintains a website (www.tcqsm.org) that is intended to
support the manual until the next edition is produced. Potential content could include links to
major new research, clarifications and errata, and links to other supporting material.

DEVELOPMENT

History of the TCQSM

This version of the TCQSM is the 3rd edition of the manual. The 1st edition, TCRP Web
Document 6, was produced in 1999, assembling for the first time in one place a set of methods for
evaluating the capacity of bus and rail transit services and facilities, and introducing a framework
for evaluating the quality of service from the passenger point of view. A portion of the material in
this edition also formed the basis for the transit chapters in the Highway Capacity Manual 2000.
The 2nd edition, TCRP Report 100, was published in late 2003. A major focus of this edition was
filling gaps in knowledge. This edition introduced material on ferry transit capacity, expanded
coverage of DRT and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) issues, and added guidance on transit
preferential treatments and park-and-ride access to transit. Another important effort was to test
and enhance the manual’s transit quality of service framework. This edition has gone on to become
TCRP’s best-selling report, used by transit agencies, metropolitan planning organizations, state
departments of transportation, and consultants, and as a textbook in university-level classes.
The 3rd edition of the TCQSM incorporates the results of new research on transit capacity and
quality of service that has occurred in the 10 years since the 2nd edition was developed, including

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original research conducted as part of the production contract for the manual. Much of the new
content and revised presentation is a result of outreach performed at the start of the 3rd edition
development process, where users and potential users of the manual identified new or updated
content that would make the manual more relevant to their work.

New Material

The 3rd edition considers transit-industry trends during the past 10 years (e.g., widespread
adoption of low-floor vehicles, new vehicle power sources, growing interest in bus rapid transit and
modern streetcars) and their impacts on transit operations and quality of service. Although the
TCQSM is not intended to be a ridership-estimation tool, it nevertheless recognizes the strong
linkages between quality of service, ridership demand, transit operations, and costs; therefore, this
edition provides information on land use, demographic, and demand management factors that
influence ridership. This edition updates the transit capacity and speed estimation methods with
new information, where applicable, and provides guidance on the role of sketch-planning and
simulation tools in combination with TCQSM methods at different stages of a project. Finally, the
quality of service framework has been updated with consideration of the operator point-of-view,
additional performance measures, and a greater emphasis on the role of quality of service as part of
a transit agency’s service standards and performance-measurement programs.

Sources

The TCQSM was—and, largely, still is—a synthesis document, compiling the state-of-the-
practice from peer-reviewed reports and papers published by the Transportation Research Board
and others. Each edition of the TCQSM is itself peer-reviewed by an expert panel and has also
benefitted from outside input from transit professionals. One reason for providing a reference
library of links to the TCRP reports on the manual’s CD-ROM is to provide users with access to the
source material for the manual’s core methods, for those users interested in more information
about how different methods were developed. In addition, the list of references provided in each
chapter includes links to other source documents available online.

USAGE

The TCQSM provides a framework for performing transit capacity and quality of service
analyses. However, in most cases, local policies also play an important role. For example, the design
level of crowding inside a vehicle, the typical stop spacing along a street, and the relative
prioritization of route coverage versus cost efficiency are examples of agency decisions that impact
transit capacity, speed, and quality of service, respectively. The TCQSM can be used to evaluate the
impacts of these decisions, but the manual does not dictate a specific quality of service that should
be provided. It is a reference, a source of guidance, but not a standards document.
As a benefit to international users, the TCQSM supports the use of both metric and U.S.
customary units. However, international users should be aware that the majority of the research
base for the manual derives from U.S. and Canadian conditions. While there is considerable value in
the TCQSM’s general methods, their use outside North America will likely require calibrating the

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computational method inputs to local conditions. A companion document published by the World
Bank highlights the differences between North American conditions and conditions found in other
parts of the world, and suggests capacity procedures for developing cities that are modeled on
TCQSM methods, while using inputs typical of the conditions found in those cities.