This study examines the relationship between the economic benefit of specific air services and the perceived cost of the carbon dioxide emissions from the aircraft operating the services. Initially a review is made of the basic evidence of climate change and air transport's contribution to it. This is to help put the conclusions of the study into the relevant context. As well as determining air transport's contribution to global warming, the study also considers the current and likely future taxation of air travel from the UK and the importance of air services to the World and specifically to the UK. These assessments are in macro terms. In order to obtain the necessary data to determine the relationship between the perceived cost of the CO~ produced and the economic value of the air services, research has been carried out at two UK airports - London City Airport, predominantly used by business travellers and Newquay, Cornwall Airport predominantly used by leisure travellers. Passengers were interviewed to obtain data relating to the benefit of their travel. The data was extrapolated for a full year and compared with the amount of CO~ produced by the aircraft operating the air services from and to the two airports in the same year. Forecasts of the cost of the cost of CO-, were used leading- to a ratio of economic benefit to CO-, cost. The results suggest a significantly greater economic value and this, plus the qualitative assessment of the value of air transport, provide evidence to question plans for increased taxation of air transport. The study then uses a further survey to assess this conclusion in the context of global warming. Consideration is given to air transport's catalytic role as an enabler for business development leading to conclusions that economic damage would result from increased taxation. This proves the research hypothesis.

Parking plays an important role in mobility, access and the economic development of cities; at the same time, it is a profitable business for both the private and public sectors. The city centre car parking market is a sector of the economy that has increased in importance as the market for cars has grown. Cars have become a fundamental element of journey mobility and, in consequence, parking has as well. The car-parking sector has always been of great importance in terms of urban mobility, since it is a fundamental element in achieving a high level of accessibility in the city centres. In fact, many businesses and municipalities see an adequate supply of parking, especially for visitors, as crucial for their competitive growth. Yet, at the same time parking is, and will remain for most cities, the most powerful means of traffic restraint available. The economics of car parking is also important because it is, both for public and private organizations, a key source of revenue. Despite the importance of the sector, knowledge of the car parking market has been until very recently, sparse and limited. This thesis is focused on the car parking operator?s point of view, analysing and appraising this industry and the actors involved. The related literature investigates the car parking sector analysing the variables that influence its behaviour. The literature review also appraises whether and how far car parking operators are considered as key transport actors by local and national authorities, comparing Italy and the UK. The information collected is used to structure an econometric model, using the variables chosen as important and simulating the strategic behaviour of the car parking operator in a city centre context. The research also deepens the analysis of the car parking sector with a survey of car parking operators and policies in some Italian and UK cities. In this way the research achieves its aims to contribute to filling the knowledge gap on the city centre car parking market, both theoretically and empirically. Theoretically because the literature on car parking is very recent and little investigated; empirically, because research in this field is also sparse.

Congestion charging has been floated as an efficient way of managing travel demand in urban areas, reducing traffic congestion and externalities as well as raising revenues to fund transportation improvements. Moreover, the policy maker who faces heavy traffic congestion now considers it as a promising policy alternative. This situation has led to an encouraging evaluation methodology that analyses the impact of the congestion charging scenarios. However, in contrast with substantial studies on evaluation of congestion charging, comprehensive assessment, namely, trade-off between equity and efficiency, has attracted little attention so far. In addition, although studies have argued about the generated revenue for managing equity, little attention has been paid to assess the impact of revenue return as a compensating policy. The main objective of this study is to investigate and identify the impact of congestion charging measures in terms of equity and efficiency based on full implementation scenarios for Seoul in Korea. In order to achieve the objectives, the evaluation criteria has been explored in terms of equity and efficiency with the theoretical background of congestion charging, and the impacts of congestion charging have been analyzed through case studies such that charging on CBD, 2nd CBD and both. The equity is analyzed on the basis of the compensating variation measure for three income groups which can provide an index of political acceptability. The efficiency is analyzed in terms of net social welfare and traffic improvement that can be used to assess the practicability of congestion charging implementation. Finally, the revenue return which is substantially related to acceptability is examined. It is noteworthy that estimating the compensating variation by income group and expanding it to social-welfare change in a whole system in conjunction with cost-benefit analysis is a substantial advance in measuring the equity impact within the efficiency outline. Through this study, some empirical findings can be drawn; Congestion charging provides an efficiency improvement as congestion relief, increases net social welfare, but there are equity impacts as user benefit varies by toll level across the income groups. Determination of congestion charging scheme is heavily relied on not only the characteristics of charging area such as mode share, parking facilities, road network and public transport but also the traffic pattern such as traffic volume of inner, inbound, outbound, and go through in duo-centric city. It is also found that the optimal toll that is deemed to maximize social welfare is much higher than the existing toll level, so an applicable toll level has to be determined by policy objectives that maximise either social welfare or revenue. Furthermore, reduced fare of public transport as a compensating policy makes an improvement of equity as a fairer distribution whereas the economic efficiency does not make an additional improvement as a social welfare change. However, considering the limitations of the model, including use of fixed demand O/D and static short run analysis, further study would lead to an analysis of a dynamic model, variable demand and longer-term view, with more realistic assumptions

High demand of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) in recent time requires LNG carriers in more frequent operations in order to meet customers' needs. To ensure that the LNG carriers are always reliable in service, it has become necessary to adopt various advanced modelling techniques such as Genetic Algorithm (GA), fuzzy logic and Evidential Reasoning (ER) for risk/safety assessment and maintenance modelling of LNG carrier operations. These advanced computational techniques can help to overcome challenges posed by uncertainties associated with the LNG carrier operations. Their usefulness is demonstrated using case studies in this research. Firstly, two major hazards of LNG carrier operations such as "failure of LNG containment system" and "LNG spill from transfer arm" are identified and estimated as high risk ones using a risk matrix technique and expert judgement. The causes (failure modeslbasic events) of these high risk hazards are analysed using a Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). The failure logics of their failure modes are established and Boolean algebra is applied to facilitate the evaluation of the failure probabilities and frequencies. Secondly, a GA model is developed to improve the safety levels of the LNG containment system and transfer arm, to minimise their maintenance costs and to realise optimal resource management. The GA is used to optimise a risk model that is developed with exponential distribution and parameters such as failure frequencies, unit costs of maintenance and new maintenance costs of the LNG containment system and transfer arm. Thirdly, the uncertainties of some parameters in the GA model such as unit costs of maintenance are subdued using the strength of Fuzzy Rule Base (FRB) in combination with GA. 125 fuzzy rules of LNG carrier system maintenance cost are developed, which makes it possible to facilitate the evaluation of maintenance cost in any specific LNG risk-based operation. The outcomes of unit costs of maintenance are used in the GA based risk model to update the optimal management of maintenance cost. Finally, the uncertainties of failure modes of the LNG containment system and transfer arm are investigated and treated based on the Formal Safety Assessment (FSA) principle using a Fuzzy ER (FER) approach. The fuzzy logic is used to estimate the safety/risk levels of those failure modes while the ER is used to synthesise them to facilitate the estimation of safety/risk levels of the top events. Risk Control Options (RCOs) are developed to manage high level risks. The costs for each of the RCOs are estimated and synthesised using ER, which facilitated the investigation of the best RCOs in risk-based decision making. There is no doubt that the methodologies proposed possess significant potential for use in improving safety and maintenance of LNG carrier operations based on the verifications of their corresponding test cases. Accordingly, the developed models can be integrated to formulate a platform to facilitate risk assessment and maintenance management of LNG carrier systems in situations where traditional techniques cannot be applied with confidence.

Suborbital flights will soon take flight as a viable commercial operation. Operators such as Virgin Galactic, along with their designer Scaled Composites, will be responsible for safety of the flight crew, Spaceflight Participants and indeed the uninvolved public beneath their flight trajectories. Within the United States, the Federal Aviation Authority’s Office of Commercial Transportation (FAA-AST) has provided Launch License Regulations and Guidelines for prospective design organisations and operators alike. The aim of this thesis is to analyse suborbital spaceflight approaches to safety management and to determine whether effective safety management is being or could be applied to influence vehicle design and subsequent operation. The thesis provides a review of current safety-related information on suborbital spaceflight, existing space safety information and also existing aviation safety information. The findings of the review concern two main areas; firstly that a gap exists within suborbital safety management criteria, and secondly that a gap exists in existing aviation-based safety guidelines. In the first case, the research concluded that FAA-AST safety management criteria did not present sufficiently explicit and rationalised guidelines for this new industry. Indeed, the thesis argues that the scope of the FAA-AST regulations (covering both orbital and suborbital aspects) is too broad, and that regulations and guidelines should be split into distinct orbital and suborbital sections so as to provide more effective directives. In Europe, no such regulations or guidelines exist as there has until now been no requirement (a ‘customer’) for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) to implement such a framework. This thesis sought to address this gap by using a safety tool (Goal Structuring Notation) to construct a goal-based regulatory approach, which was included in a draft EASA suborbital Policy. Secondly, the main significant finding of this research is that a gap (literally) exists between current aviation-based design organisation safety guidelines and operator safety risk management guidelines. This absence of communication means operators are not managing their safety risks as effectively as they could. The thesis argues that the suborbital domain should take heed, as most vehicles are based on aircraft designs and therefore suborbital operators will, no doubt, apply ‘best practice’ either from the aviation or commercial space domains. Neither is appropriate or effective. As a result of the main finding a contiguous safety model has been developed which employs a ‘key (platform) hazard’ to join the design organisation analysis to the operator safety risk management, therefore completing an explicit sequence from the initiating causal event to the accident. The model is demonstrated using case studies from space disasters (Space Shuttle) and also from aviation accidents (Air France flight AF447); the model details the explicit accident sequence and shows missing or failed controls leading up to the accident. The research enabled models to be constructed and also proposed additional and explicit guidelines for the suborbital industry such as medical and training standards and separate safety criteria for vertical launch vehicles; these are included as recommendations and need to be ratified by recognised bodies such as the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety’s Suborbital Space Safety Technical Committee for inclusion in their Space Safety Standards Manual. In the latter case these recommendations are already agenda items for the Technical Committee to address.

The aim of this research is to propose an alternative approach to determine the maintainability prediction for aircraft components. In this research, the author looks at certain areas of the maintainability prediction process where missteps or misapplications most commonly occur. The first of these is during the early stage of the Design for Maintainability (DfMt) process. The author discovered the importance of utilising historical information or feedback information. The second area is during the maintainability prediction where the maintenance of components is quantified; here, the author proposes having the maximum target for each individual maintainability component. This research attempts to utilise aircraft maintenance historical data and information (i.e. feedback information systems). Aircraft feedback information contains various types of information that could be used for future improvement rather than just the failure elements. Literature shows that feedback information such as Service Difficulty Reporting System (SDRS) and Air Accidents Investigation Branch, (AAIB) reports have helped to identify the critical and sensitive components that need more attention for further improvement. This research consists of two elements. The first is to identity and analyse historical data. The second is to identify existing maintainability prediction methodologies and propose an improved methodology. The 10 years’ data from Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) SDRS data of all aircraft were collected and analysed in accordance with the proposed methodology before the processes of maintainability allocation and prediction were carried out. The maintainability was predicted to identify the potential task time for each individual aircraft component. The predicted tasks time in this research has to be in accordance with industrial real tasks time were possible. One of the identified solutions is by using maintainability allocation methodology. The existing maintainability allocation methodology was improved, tested, and validated by using several case studies. The outcomes were found to be very successful. Overall, this research has proposed a new methodology for maintainability prediction by integrating two important elements: historical data information, and maintainability allocation. The study shows that the aircraft maintenance related feedback information systems analyses were very useful for deciding maintainabilityeffectiveness; these include planning, organising maintenance and design improvement. There is no doubt that historical data information has the ability to contribute an important role in design activities. The results also show that maintainability is an importance measure that can be used as a guideline for managing efforts made for the improvement of aircraft components.

This thesis studies the Inventory Routing Problem (IRP) consisting of one supplier and multiple retailers who face a stochastic demand that is assumed to be independently and identically distributed over an infinite planning horizon. The aim of the study is to examine the impact of flexibility that is generated from the opportunity of the supplier to make an early replenishment in order to consolidate the replenishment between retailers and the integration of efficient routing strategies that optimise the cost and vehicle energy consumption besides generating high vehicle effectiveness. The study also aims to evaluate the potential of the IRP model as a business process reengineering strategy in the context of private healthcare industry in Malaysia. One of the leading private healthcare organizations that owns a chain of clinics in Malaysia is used to examine to explore typical supply chain process leading to practical contextualization of an IRP model. The new IRP model is proposed based on (s,c,S) policy to evaluate the trade-off between inventory cost and transportation cost. The analysis, based on a spreadsheet simulation model, numerically evaluates the performance of the proposed IRP model using different vehicle effectiveness strategies including the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) approach, the Overall Vehicle Effectiveness (OVE) and Modified Overall Vehicle Effectiveness (MOVE) metrics. Results showed the proposed periodic can-deliver model provides a significant cost saving compared to the common inventory control policy, (s,S) and a slight additional marginal benefit compared to the (s,S-1,S) policy. The findings also indicate that the MOVE metric consistently outperformed the OVE metric and TSP approach which determines the delivery sequence that generates high vehicle effectiveness which in return minimises the cost, vehicle distance travelled, and vehicle energy consumed. An appropriate inventory policy together with an appropriate routing policy is crucial in the IRP approach. Integration of flexible inventory control policies with the MOVE metrics leads to minimised operating costs and low vehicle energy consumption as well as improving total vehicle effectiveness.

This study attempts to develop realistic and relevant investment planning models for inland container transportation systems. An inland container transport system model has been constructed consisting of three sub-models: forecasting future total export container demand, the inland container traffic allocation model and the optimum port capacity model. The models may be utilised to identify the most effective investment plan for inland transportation infrastructure development and to evaluate the inland container transportation system. The procedure enables determination of the optimal locations, sizes and time of container port developments as well as the optimal container cargo flows through transportation networks. A Heuristic algorithm was developed for the purpose of evaluating alternative investment plans. Dynamic and Linear programming methods are applied to each of the two planning problems: the former for the optimum container port capacity development problem and the latter for the optimal allocation of inland container traffic movements. Finally, the model has been applied to concrete inland container transportation system problems in Korea. The results are reported and analysed. It is hoped that they may provide a guideline for actual development.

The aim of this thesis is to develop an integrated methodology for investigating the potential for new local railway stations within a given area, with particular emphasis on the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Existing methods for assessing the case for constructing new local railway stations have often been found wanting, with the forecasts produced proving to be inaccurate. A review of previous work in this field has been undertaken and methodologies with the potential to enhance local rail demand models have been identified. Trip rate and trip end models have been developed which are capable of forecasting usage at new station sites anywhere in England and Wales. Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) has been used to enhance the performance of these models and to account for local variations in the effects of explanatory variables on rail demand. Flow level models have been produced for stations in South-East Wales, with a range of model formulations tested. A survey of ultimate passenger trip origins and destinations was carried out in the same area, enabling the accuracy of theoretical station catchment definition methods to be tested. A GIS-based procedure for locating potential sites for new railway stations within a given area has been developed. This was combined with the results from the demand models and estimates of associated costs and benefits to give a synthesised appraisal procedure capable of assessing the case for constructing particular stations. This procedure was applied to 14 sites in South-East Wales and, along with trip end forecasts for 421 sites across the country, this indicated that there is almost certainly a positive case for constructing a significant number of new railway stations in the UK.

The bus industry is plagued by high accident costs and risks of passenger injuries. A bus simulator may offer a method of reducing accident rates by delivering targeted training to bus drivers who are most at risk. The first part of this thesis describes the design of the UK's first bus simulator, the fidelity of which was based on a thorough analysis of bus crashes. The second part describes the first studies in a multi-staged method to evaluate the training effectiveness of the simulator: face validity, effects of bus driver experience and stress on simulated performance and simulator sickness. This approach ensured that the ABS has a reasonable level of fidelity, is capable of eliciting behaviourally valid responses from bus drivers and is the first step is achieving training transfer effectiveness. The final study investigated the occurrence of self-bias in bus drivers. The conclusions drove the design of simulated scenarios to be used for bus driver training. Keywords: Bus, Simulator, Fidelity, Validity, Accidents, Driving, Stress, Training