A methodology for the classification of railway passenger stations wasdeveloped in this study. Four groups of factors are defined to study the characteristics ofthe station: potential of the town, importance of the town, infrastructural factors, andcharacteristics of passengers. In the research we investigated 18 factors and studied 98passenger stations of railway network in Bulgaria. The method of principal componentshas been applied for grouping the factors and cluster analysis has been applied to classifythe stations. The factors have been classified into 4 components by the method ofprincipal components. The stations have been classified into 6 groups using hierarchicalcluster analysis. The methods, Average linkage between group and Within-groupslinkage, and distance-type measures Euclidean distance and Squared Euclidean distancewere compared to verify the results of cluster analysis. The grouping of the stations hasbeen used for the determination of the stops for categories intercity passenger trains. Themain groups of stations for servicing express trains are the first, second, third, fourth andfifth groups. In the sixth group are stations for servicing fast passenger trains. Themethodology can be applied to the study of all stations and stops in the rail network.
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