Analyzing the Geographical Catchment Areas of Fort-Malabe LRT by Access Modes

Development of transport sector is a timely need for a developing country such as Sri Lanka. Especially the public transport sector. Mass transit systems serve as the backbone transport systems while feeder modes enable the connections between the origins and mass transit connection points. Currently passengers use private feeders and non-private modes. A proper feeder network is vital for the success of a mass transit network.In this paper, Fort- Malabe LRT which is the newest mass transit that is being introduced to Sri Lanka, is analyzed. Spatial extents of catchment areas for access modes were taken using survey data for each feeder mode. The station wise catchment distances and corridor wise catchment distance for each mode is discussed and compared.There are two approaches utilized in identifying the geographical buffer area. In the first approach, circular buffer, the area that is contained by the Euclidean catchment distance is taken. In service area approach the catchment by road network is taken. The geographical catchment areas for different access modes were concluded, for each mode of feeder, using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and solutions that can be applied for maximizing the catchment areas were suggested using Conveyal analysis.