Time-based fares¶

Main files: fare_leg_rules.txt, areas.txt, stop_areas.txt

Example: Translink (Vancouver)

Recall (Fares v2 Features): Time-Based Fares assigns different fares to journeys based on different times of the day of different weekdays. This fare feature models peak/off-peak fares and fare updates for special occasions.

Recall: Translink offers reduced fares during the evening (6:30pm to 3am) and on weekends. All SkyTrain and Seabus fares become a one zone fare (3.20$). Travel from Sea Island during the evening and weekends costs 8.20$ (the 5$ surcharge + one zone fare of 3.20$).

This can be modeled using the file timeframes.txt. The cheaper time-based fares (fare products and fare leg rules) will be added to all the fare products that were created in the previous sections (see Route-Based fares and Zone-Based fares).

Time-Based fares are created as follows:

Create timeframes¶

In timeframes.txt, add the different timeframes that allow the modeling of the fare rules

timeframe_group_id: Unique id for the timeframe
start_time: When the timeframe for the special fare starts
end_time: when the timeframe for the special fare ends.
service_id: A foreign key referencing a service_id from calendar.txt or calendar_dates.txt. This allows the Time-based fare to be matched to a service day or a range of service days.

Consult the documentation to read more about timeframes.txt and how to set it up.

Note:

end_time is not included in the timeframe. Eg: If end_time=12:00:00, then the timeframe ends at 11:59:59.
start_time and end_time values over 24:00:00 are forbidden. If a timeframe spans across midnight, then it should be split at midnight into two timeframe rows. They can have the same timeframe_group_id.

First, the weekday and weekend services are separately created in calendar.txt

calendar.txt

service_id	monday	tuesday	wednesday	thursday	friday	saturday	sunday	start_date	end_date
weekday_service	1	1	1	1	1	0	0	20250101	20251231
weekend_service	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	20250101	20251231

Then, we create the timeframes in timeframes.txt. First a weekday service from 3am to 6:30 pm that will be used for the pre-created Zone-based fares created in the previous section. The weekday evening service is created in two parts since it crosses midnight, from 6:30pm to midnight and from midnight to 3am. Finally create a weekend service for the entire length of the day.

timeframes.txt

timeframe_group_id	start_time	end_time	service_id
weekday_daytime	03:00:00	18:30:00	weekday_service
weekday_evening	18:30:00	24:00:00	weekday_service
weekday_evening	00:00:00	03:00:00	weekday_service
weekend			weekend_service

Note that the same timeframe_group_id weekday_evening is kept to avoid duplication of fare legs. For "weekend", keep start_time and end_time empty which means that the timeframe is associated with the whole service (entire weekend).

Add fare products and fare leg rules¶

Create the fare products in fare_products.txt and the fare leg rules in fare_leg_rules.txt.
For Translink’s case, there are two fares to add. A one-zone fare and a one-zone Sea Island fare. In this case, both fares already exist (We will simplify them at a later stage).
Restrict the previous fare legs to weekday daytime timeframes, and the new legs to weekday evening and weekend timeframes, this is done by referencing from_timeframe_group_id and to_timeframe_group_id in fare_leg_rules.txt. For Translink, we assume that only the leg’s start time matters in determining the fare (no further information was found)

In fare_leg_rules.txt below, flat_fare_leg was repeated and associated with skytrain_seabus network twice, once for the weekday evening timeframe and once for the weekend timeframe. This allows the association of the one-zone fare to SkyTrain and Seabus on evenings and weekends.

Furthermore, note that flat_fare_sea_island_leg was created to associate the Sea Island SkyTrain legs that depart from sea_island to any zone with a one-zone Sea Island fare (sea_island_1_zone_fare) during evenings and weekends.
Note: to_area_id left empty with the existence of rule_priority means that the destination zone (to_area_id) does not affect the leg matching

With rule_priority=1 for Sea Island legs, they keep their priority in applying the additional 5$ fare. Since all fares are 1-zone fares outside of weekday daytime, the additional 5$ applies to the 1-zone fare and the new fare for trips originating from Sea Island is sea_island_1_zone_fare which has an amount of 5 + 3.20 = 8.20$.

fare_leg_rules.txt (full file)

leg_group_id	network_id	fare_product_id	from_area_id	to_area_id	from_timeframe_group_id	rule_priority
flat_fare_leg	bus	bus_flat_fare
ZN1_ZN1	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare	ZN1	ZN1	weekday_daytime
ZN2_ZN2	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare	ZN2	ZN2	weekday_daytime
ZN3_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare	ZN3	ZN3	weekday_daytime
ZN1_ZN2	skytrain_seabus	2_zone_fare	ZN1	ZN2	weekday_daytime
ZN2_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	2_zone_fare	ZN2	ZN3	weekday_daytime
ZN1_ZN2	skytrain_seabus	2_zone_fare	ZN2	ZN1	weekday_daytime
ZN2_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	2_zone_fare	ZN3	ZN2	weekday_daytime
ZN1_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	3_zone_fare	ZN1	ZN3	weekday_daytime
ZN1_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	3_zone_fare	ZN3	ZN1	weekday_daytime
sea_island_ZN1	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_2_zone_fare	sea_island	ZN1	weekday_daytime	1
sea_island_ZN2	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_1_zone_fare	sea_island	ZN2	weekday_daytime	1
sea_island_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_2_zone_fare	sea_island	ZN3	weekday_daytime	1
sea_island_sea_island	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_sea_island_fare	sea_island	sea_island		2
flat_fare_leg	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare			weekday_evening
flat_fare_leg	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare			weekend
flat_fare_sea_island_leg	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_1_zone_fare	sea_island		weekday_evening	1
flat_fare_sea_island_leg	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_1_zone_fare	sea_island		weekend	1

Simplify using rule_priority¶

Since the evening/weekend fare is the same as a flat fare/one-zone fare, further simplification can be achieved using rule_priority.

Assign a higher priority to evening/weekend legs.
Remove the timeframe association to weekday daytime legs.

By setting a higher rule_priority for the evening and weekend legs, and leaving the rule_priority field empty for the weekday daytime legs (which interprets it as 0), the evening and weekend legs are prioritized when they are in effect (in their timeframes). This will lead to the calculation of the correct fare.

flat_fare_leg during evenings and weekends is assigned rule_priority=1 so that it takes precedence over all other flat fare legs or zone-based legs. So when the fare is inside the timeframe weekday_evening or weekend, the flat fare leg is selected on top of all other legs (excluding Sea Island) since it’s prioritized.
flat_fare_leg_sea_island during evenings and weekends is assigned rule_priority=2 so that it is prioritized over other legs originating from Sea Island (whole rule_priority is already 1 from the previous Zone-Based Fares section) during these timeframes.
For sea_island_sea_island_leg, the rule_priority is increased to 3 so that it is prioritized over all other legs that match from_area_id=sea_island and to_area_it=sea_island at all times. This guarantees the free fare within Sea Island at all times.

Updated fare_leg_rules.txt (full file)

leg_group_id	network_id	fare_product_id	from_area_id	to_area_id	from_timeframe_group_id	rule_priority
flat_fare_leg	bus	bus_flat_fare
ZN1_ZN1	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare	ZN1	ZN1
ZN2_ZN2	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare	ZN2	ZN2
ZN3_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare	ZN3	ZN3
ZN1_ZN2	skytrain_seabus	2_zone_fare	ZN1	ZN2
ZN2_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	2_zone_fare	ZN2	ZN3
ZN1_ZN2	skytrain_seabus	2_zone_fare	ZN2	ZN1
ZN2_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	2_zone_fare	ZN3	ZN2
ZN1_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	3_zone_fare	ZN1	ZN3
ZN1_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	3_zone_fare	ZN3	ZN1
sea_island_ZN1	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_2_zone_fare	sea_island	ZN1		1
sea_island_ZN2	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_1_zone_fare	sea_island	ZN2		1
sea_island_ZN3	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_2_zone_fare	sea_island	ZN3		1
sea_island_sea_island	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_sea_island_fare	sea_island	sea_island		3
flat_fare_leg	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare			weekday_evening	1
flat_fare_leg	skytrain_seabus	1_zone_fare			weekend	1
flat_fare_sea_island_leg	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_1_zone_fare	sea_island		weekday_evening	2
flat_fare_sea_island_leg	skytrain_seabus	sea_island_1_zone_fare	sea_island		weekend	2