A queueing model of airport passenger departures by taxi: Competition with a public transportation mode

A Poisson queue with random clearing of all customers is formulated for the purpose of studying the interaction between taxicabs and buses at an airport. The analytical model is validated by comparison with a detailed simulation model calibrated from actual airport data. The operating characteristics of this transportation system are studied. The mean daily and mean peak period expected waiting times and the probabilities of modal switching as a function of the number of taxis in service and bus frequencies are exhibited. Taxis are discovered to be a highly effective transport mode, substituting at the rate of one daily cab to one additional daily bus trip for equal mean peak period passenger wait.