ANALYSIS OF TICKETING SERVICES OF NIGERIA RAILWAY CORPORATION USING M/M/S QUEUING MODEL: A CASE STUDY OF UJEVWU AND ITAKPE TRAIN STATIONS

Abstract

The study was carried out to evaluate the queuing activities at ticket windows of two selected train terminals with a view to determining their performances and improving customer service while minimizing the economic cost of operating both stations. We observed the arrival and departure patterns of passengers at the ticket section for a period of 24 days for each station within the hours of 6 am-8 am and 1 pm-3 pm for Ujevwu and Itakpe terminals respectively. The M/M/S model with poisson and
exponential processes was used to derive the arrival rate and service rates, utilization factor, waiting times of passengers in the system (queue and inservice), and the probability of n customers in the system. It was observed that passengers arrive at the Ujevwu ticket section at an average rate of 1.184 persons per minute and are serviced at the rate of 0.894 per minute. Also,
the rates of arrival of passengers at the Itakpe station were calculated to be 2.092 per minute and service was at 1.787 persons per minute. A sensitivity analysis was done for both systems for when the service channels are increased to three and four servers to ascertain which best optimizes the overall system. The system were both found to be at their best with an increase in service channels from two to three and switching between three and four servers at peak days, particularly for the Itakpe station.