Temporary user-centred networks for transport systems

•We introduce Temporary User-Centred Networks (TUNs) for transport systems.•TUNs reveal circumstantial user-based collaboration opportunities in real-time.•TUNs materialise spatiotemporally dependent ties between users.•We define affinity measures to create TUNs: journey similarity and substitutability.•We demonstrate and evaluate TUNs with an urban public transport system case study.

The concept of Temporary User-Centred Networks (TUNs) for transport systems is introduced. Affinity in these networks is defined as the time-specific degree of equivalence between travel patterns of users in the system. TUNs reveal latent social structures typically invisible to their users, enabling circumstantial collaboration opportunities amongst them. To make TUNs explicit we quantify affinity as a combination of two measures: journey similarity and journey substitutability. In the urban public transport domain, TUNs enable the diffusion of knowledge across the system in real-time. This can assist passengers adjusting travel decisions to their preferences and objectives according to service status. An enriched Automated Fare Collection (AFC) system dataset is used to demonstrate the market potential of TUNs in the urban public transport domain.