Evaluating operation efficiency of public transportation: A three-stage DEA method

Based on the traffic data of Beijing, this paper uses the principal component analysis method to establish a reliable indicator system of efficiency evaluation. It then uses the three-stage DEA model to evaluate the efficiency of rail transit and ground bus in 2008-2017, which describes the development trend and effective situation of rail transit and ground bus in Beijing in the past ten years. Besides, it also compares and analyzes the calculated efficiency before and after the adjustment. The research shows that the overall operation efficiency of rail transit is high and rising year by year, but the overall operation efficiency of ground bus is low and declining in recent years. The number of vehicles, as an environmental variable, leads to the virtual high and causes a significant impact on the comprehensive efficiency and pure technical efficiency of rail transit, but has little impact on the scale efficiency. Also, it leads to the virtual high of comprehensive efficiency and pure technical efficiency of ground bus but underestimates the scale efficiency.