Leveraging passengers’ mobile network data for an integrated air-rail frequency planning in Spain

This study addresses the integrated air-rail frequency planning problem with the goal of estimating jointly flight and long-distance train frequencies while considering potential synchronisation between the two modes and passenger preferences. It introduces a generalised cost model to capture passenger travel preferences and incorporates CO2 emissions modelling to minimise the environmental impact. The model is tested on the Spanish air-rail transportation network using real passenger demand from mobile phone data. The results indicate that integrating air and rail frequency planning, along with considering environmental costs, can reduce CO2 emissions by over 66%, thanks to the air-to-rail transfer, with only a 20­minute increase in average door-to-door travel time.