16. On the Use of a Multicriteria Decision Aiding Tool for the Evaluation of Comfort

In this paper we present a real word application of multicriteria decision aiding for the evaluation of high speed trains comfort from passengers’s point of view. Our study is used as a feasibility analysis for the introduction of multicriteria tools in the SNCF. Our approach concerns different steps of a decision aiding procedure. We firstly define the complex notion of comfort and propose to use a hierarchical model for its representation. We then present in more detail the seating comfort by assigning value scales to its components. Our problem being a sorting problem and our data being very heterogeneous, we decide to use the ELECTRE TRI method for the aggregation of the components. The article presents how the decision parameters, such as thresholds, weights and limit profiles, of ELECTRE TRI are selected and conclude with three fictitious assignment examples.