Reducing depot-related costs of large bus operators a case study in Bangkok

Despite high passenger levels, many bus operators in large cities operate at a loss because of low fares and inefficient operations management. Methods to reduce the operating costs need to be adapted to the operational environment. This paper addresses one such “unproductive” cost: the idle running of buses between depots and routes. Models are developed to tackle the bus allocation problem in which many different brands of buses exist for which maintenance is organised in the depots. Based on an assessment using 1992 data for the city of Bangkok, a hierarchical modelling approach is retained. It is shown that important cost savings can be made.     

A model for setting services on auxiliary bus lines under congestion

In this paper, a mathematical programming model and a heuristically derived solution is described to assist with the efficient planning of services for a set of auxiliary bus lines (a bus-bridging system) during disruptions of metro and rapid transit lines. The model can be considered static and takes into account the average flows of passengers over a given period of time (i.e., the peak morning traffic hour). Auxiliary bus services must accommodate very high demand levels, and the model presented is able to take into account the operation of a bus-bridging system under congested conditions. A general analysis of the congestion in public transportation lines is presented, and the results are applied to the design of a bus-bridging system. A nonlinear integer mathematical programming model and a suitable approximation of this model are then formulated. This approximated model can be solved by a heuristic procedure that has been shown to be computationally viable. The output of the model is as follows: (a) the number of bus units to assign to each of the candidate lines of the bus-bridging system; (b) the routes to be followed by users passengers of each of the origin–destination pairs; (c) the operational conditions of the components of the bus-bridging system, including the passenger load of each of the line segments, the degree of saturation of the bus stops relative to their bus input flows, the bus service times at bus stops and the passenger waiting times at bus stops. The model is able to take into account bounds with regard to the maximum number of passengers waiting at bus stops and the space available at bus stops for the queueing of bus units. This paper demonstrates the applicability of the model with two realistic test cases: a railway corridor in Madrid and a metro line in Barcelona.     

A fuzzy clustering approach to real-time demand-responsive bus dispatching control

Quick response (QR) to passenger needs is a key objective for advanced public transportation systems (APTS), and it has become increasingly important for contemporary metropolitan bus operations to gain a competitive advantage over private transportation. This paper presents a real-time control methodology for demand-responsive bus operations that respond quickly to passenger needs. The proposed method primarily involves two levels of functionality: (1) short-term forecasting of passenger demands using time-series prediction models, and (2) identification of service strategies coupled with the associated bus service segments using fuzzy clustering technologies in response to variances in passenger demand attributes and traffic conditions. The proposed bus operations method identifies the demand-responsive vehicle service strategies primarily according to the predicted up-to-date attributes of passengers’ demands, rather than deterministic passenger arrival rates, which were generally used in previous literature. In addition, the variation of traffic conditions along bus lines is considered in the proposed method. Results from numerical studies using real data of passengers’ demands, including passenger volume at each bus stop and the passenger origin-destination (O-D) patterns, are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for real-world applications.     

Spectral analysis for performance evaluation in a bus network

This paper deals with the performance evaluation of a public transportation system in terms of waiting times at various connection points. The behaviour of a bus network is studied in the framework of Discrete Event Systems (DES). Two possible operating modes of buses can be observed at each connection stop: periodic and non-periodic mode. Two complementary tools, Petri nets and (max, +) algebra, are used to describe the network by a non-stationary linear state model. This one can be solved after solving the structural conflicts associated to the graphical representation. From the characteristic matrix of the mathematical model, we determine eigenvalues and eigenvectors that we use to evaluate the connection times of passengers. This work is finally illustrated with a numerical example.     

The school bus routing problem: A review

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the school bus routing problem (SBRP). SBRP seeks to plan an efficient schedule for a fleet of school buses where each bus picks up students from various bus stops and delivers them to their designated schools while satisfying various constraints such as the maximum capacity of a bus, the maximum riding time of a student in a bus, and the time window of a school. This class of problem consists of different sub-problems involving data preparation, bus stop selection, bus route generation, school bell time adjustment, and bus scheduling. In this paper, the various assumptions, constraints, and solution methods used in the literature on SBRP are summarized. A list of issues requiring further research is also presented.     

A model for the periodic optimization of bus dispatching times

We model the problem of dispatching time control in rolling horizons following a periodic optimization approach reactionary to travel time and passenger demand disturbances. This model provides more flexibility to transport planners allowing them to adjust the bus schedules during the daily operations. We prove that our periodic optimization model is a convex quadratic program, guaranteeing the global optimality of its solution. To reduce the computational burden, we introduce an iterative algorithm that uses gradient approximations to obtain an approximate dispatching solution. The proposed solution method is found to be significantly faster than exact optimization approaches for quadratic programming and maintains an (almost) negligible optimality gap in realistic bus operation scenarios. Finally, we show that our periodic optimization method outperforms myopic methods that adjust the dispatching time of each bus trip in isolation using operational data from bus line 302 in Singapore.     

基于APC和GPS数据的青奥会期间南京公共交通的调度与优化

为了得到青奥会期间南京市合理有效的公交调度方案,本文针对青奥会场馆、运动员村、旅游点等附近的南京公共交通线路,建立模型与算法.首先,通过APC数据与GPS数据的匹配,对客流数据进行站点匹配预处理,根据已有客流量数据,训练小波神经网络,从而对客流分布情况进行预测,然后基于客流预测结果,采用有序聚类法,实现客流高低峰时段的合理划分.其次,详细分析调度问题的关键所在,以时段总发车次数和乘客等待时间两个因素作为目标函数,将时段最大、最小发车间隔和满载率等作为约束条件,提出基于APC和GPS的公交车辆辅助调度模型,通过遗传算法对模型进行求解,得出不同时段的发车间隔和配车次数,并对模型的性能进行评估.以南京市D7路公交运营线路的实际客流数据为例,采用MATLAB软件进行仿真实验,得出优化结果.结果表明所建模型是合理的,从而为调度时刻表的生成提供了科学的依据.     

The planning of headways in urban public transit

A basic issue in the planning of urban public transport is the determination of headways or inter-dispatch times. During each season, i.e. distinct time-period whose demand characteristics are constant, the following tradeoff must be considered. Dispatching too many vehicles on a route causes high operating costs, while too few vehicles may result in unsatisfactory levels of service. An appropriate policy on headways will help to balance resources between lines (routes) in peak-demand hours and will influence the total number of buses acquired by a transit company. Previous practice in industry usually bases the planning of headways upon satisfying service criteria on a most-congested segment. This approach reduces the problem from that of studying a route to that of a single segment (stop), but thereby fails to account for other important information about the line's characteristics. In this article, we develop two new service criteria which consider the line as a whole: (1) crowding-over-distance takes into account discomfort resulting from a vehicle carrying too many passengers, and the corresponding distance travelled; and (2) probability-of-failure, the frequency with which a waiting passenger fails to board due to lack of space. COD will be analyzed using simulation. POF will be related to a time-dependent Markov chain that is inhomogeneous in terms of distance along the route. Optimal headways are those which dispatch the smallest number of buses while meeting the particular service criterion. Models based on each of the two criteria are illustrated and applied to a number of routes of the Israeli transit company, DAN.The preparation of this paper was partially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Grant No. OGP 05292.     

Modelling and optimization of average travel time for a metro line by simulation and response surface methodology

This research presents a modelling and solution approach based on discrete-event simulation and response surface methodology for dealing with average passenger travel time optimization problem inherent to the metro planning process. The objective is to find the headways optimizing passenger average travel time with a satisfactory rate of carriage fullness. Due to some physical constraints, traffic safety and legal requirements, vehicle speeds cannot be raised any further to decrease travel time. But travel time can be optimized by arranging headways (i.e. the time period between the departure times of two consecutive transportation vehicles) in a timetable. In the presented approach, simulation metamodels that best fit the data collected from the simulated experiments are constructed to describe the relationship between the responses (average travel time and rate of carriage fullness) and input factors (headways). Then, the Derringer–Suich multi-response optimization procedure is used to determine the optimal settings of the input factors that produce the minimum value of the average travel time by providing a proper rate of carriage fullness. This methodology is applied for a real metro line, and good quality solutions are obtained with reduced number of experiments that needed to provide sufficient information for statistically acceptable results.     

Optimization of transit route network,vehicle headways and timetables for large-scale transit networks

This paper presents a metaheuristic method for optimizing transit networks, including route network design, vehicle headway, and timetable assignment. Given information on transit demand, the street network of the transit service area, and total fleet size, the goal is to identify a transit network that minimizes a passenger cost function. Transit network optimization is a complex combinatorial problem due to huge search spaces of route network, vehicle headways, and timetables. The methodology described in this paper includes a representation of transit network variable search spaces (route network, headway, and timetable); a user cost function based on passenger random arrival times, route network, vehicle headways, and timetables; and a metaheuristic search scheme that combines simulated annealing, tabu, and greedy search methods. This methodology has been tested with problems reported in the existing literature, and applied to a large-scale realistic network optimization problem. The results show that the methodology is capable of producing improved solutions to large-scale transit network design problems in reasonable amounts of time and computing resources.     

A time–space network based exact optimization model for multi-depot bus scheduling

The vehicle scheduling problem, arising in public transport bus companies, addresses the task of assigning buses to cover a given set of timetabled trips with consideration of practical requirements, such as multiple depots and vehicle types as well as depot capacities. An optimal schedule is characterized by minimal fleet size and minimal operational costs including costs for unloaded trips and waiting time. This paper discusses the multi-depot, multi-vehicle-type bus scheduling problem (MDVSP), involving multiple depots for vehicles and different vehicle types for timetabled trips. We use time–space-based instead of connection-based networks for MDVSP modeling. This leads to a crucial size reduction of the corresponding mathematical models compared to well-known connection-based network flow or set partitioning models. The proposed modeling approach enables us to solve real-world problem instances with thousands of scheduled trips by direct application of standard optimization software. To our knowledge, the largest problems that we solved to optimality could not be solved by any existing exact approach. The presented research results have been developed in co-operation with the provider of transportation planning software PTV AG. A software component to support planners in public transport was designed and implemented in context of this co-operation as well.     

Solving a school bus scheduling problem with integer programming

In many rural areas in Germany pupils on the way to school are a large if not the largest group of customers in public transport. If all schools start more or less at the same time then the bus companies need a high number of vehicles to serve the customer peak in the morning rush hours. In this article, we present an integer programming model for the integrated coordination of the school starting times and the public bus services. We discuss preprocessing techniques, model reformulations, and cutting planes that can be incorporated into a branch-and-cut algorithm. Computational results show that in our test counties a much lower number of buses would be sufficient if the schools start at different times.     

Prepositioning can improve the performance of a dynamic stochastic on-demand public bus system

This paper presents the first application of prepositioning in the context of the dynamic stochastic on-demand bus routing problem (DODBRP). The DODBRP is a large-scale dial-a-ride problem that involves bus station assignment and aims to minimize the total user ride time (URT) by simultaneously assigning passengers to alternative stations and determining optimal bus routes.In the DODBRP, transportation requests are introduced dynamically, and buses are dispatched to stations with known requests. This paper investigates the concept of prepositioning, which involves sending buses not only to currently known requests but also to requests that are likely to appear in the future, based on a given probability.To solve this dynamic and stochastic ODBRP, the paper proposes a heuristic algorithm based on variable neighborhood search (VNS). The algorithm considers multiple scenarios to represent different realizations of the stochastic requests.Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the prepositioning approach over the DODBRP across various levels of forecast accuracy, lengths of time bucket, and probabilities of realization. Furthermore, the paper shows that removing empty stations as a recourse action can further enhance solution quality. Additionally, in situations with low prediction accuracy, increasing the number of scenarios can lead to improved solutions. Finally, a combination of prepositioning, empty station removal, and the insertion of dynamic requests proves to be effective.Overall, the findings of this paper provide valuable insights into the application of prepositioning in the dynamic stochastic on-demand bus routing problem, highlighting its potential for addressing real-world transportation challenges.     

Minimising average passenger waiting time in personal rapid transit systems

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is an emerging urban transport mode. A PRT system operates much like a conventional hackney taxi system, except that the vehicles are driven by computer (no human driver) between stations in a dedicated network of guideways. The world’s first two PRT systems began operating in 2010 and 2011. In both PRT and taxi systems, passengers request immediate service; they do not book ahead. Perfect information about future requests is therefore not available, but statistical information about future requests is available from historical data. If the system does not use this statistical information to position empty vehicles in anticipation of future requests, long passenger waiting times result, which makes the system less attractive to passengers, but using it gives rise to a difficult stochastic optimisation problem. This paper develops three lower bounds on achievable mean passenger waiting time, one based on queuing theory, one based on the static problem, in which it is assumed that perfect information is available, and one based on a Markov Decision Process model. An evaluation of these lower bounds, together with a practical heuristic developed previously, in simulation shows that these lower bounds can often be nearly attained, particularly when the fleet size is large. The results also show that low waiting times and high utilisation can be simultaneously obtained when the fleet size is large, which suggests important economies of scale.     

Nonlinear-map model for bus schedule in capacity-controlled transportation

We study the schedule of shuttle buses in the transportation system controlled by capacity. The bus schedule is closely related to the dynamic motion of buses. We present the nonlinear-map model for the dynamics of shuttle buses. The motion of shuttle buses depends on the inflow rate. The dependence of the fixed points on the inflow is derived. The dynamic transitions occur with increasing the value of inflow rate. At the dynamic transition point, the motion of buses changes from a stable state to an unstable state and vice versa. The shuttle buses display periodic, quasi-periodic, and chaotic motions in the unstable state. In the unstable state, the number of riding passengers fluctuates complexly with varying trips. The bus schedule is governed by the complex motion of buses.     

Batch service systems with heterogeneous servers

Bulk-service multi-server queues with heterogeneous server capacity and thresholds are commonly seen in several situations such as passenger transport or package delivery services. In this paper, we develop a novel decomposition-based solution approach for such queues using arguments from renewal theory. We then obtain the distribution of the waiting time measure for multi-type server systems. We also obtain other useful performance measures such as utilization, expected throughput time, and expected queue lengths.

     

A nonlinear time series model and estimation of missing observations

This paper formulates a nonlinear time series model which encompasses several standard nonlinear models for time series as special cases. It also offers two methods for estimating missing observations, one using prediction and fixed point smoothing algorithms and the other using optimal estimating equation theory. Recursive estimation of missing observations in an autoregressive conditionally heteroscedastic (ARCH) model and the estimation of missing observations in a linear time series model are shown to be special cases. Construction of optimal estimates of missing observations using estimating equation theory is discussed and applied to some nonlinear models.Authors were supported in part by a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.     

System Regularity and Overtaking Rules in Bus Services

A detailed analysis on the effects of different overtaking rules upon scheduled and unscheduled urban bus services was carried out. The analysis used computer models, which were developed to simulate bus operation strategies with or without overtaking and possibly parallel loading.Permitting overtaking in unscheduled services was found to reduce the journey time of the buses but resulted in a higher degree of irregularity in the service. Scheduled services, in contrast, appeared to be more reliable when overtaking was permitted. In such services, permission for overtaking reduced the waiting times of passengers as a result of faster journeys and a more regular service.     

A metaheuristic for the school bus routing problem with bus stop selection

Existing literature on routing of school buses has focused mainly on building intricate models that attempt to capture as many real-life constraints and objectives as possible. In contrast, the focus of this paper is on understanding the joint problem of bus route generation and bus stop selection – two important sub-problems – in its most basic form. To this end, this paper defines the school bus routing problem (SBRP) as a variant of the vehicle routing problem in which three simultaneous decisions have to be made: (1) determine the set of stops to visit, (2) determine for each student which stop (s)he should walk to, and (3) determine routes that lie along the chosen stops, so that the total traveled distance is minimized. An MIP model of this basic problem is developed.     

Analysis of vibration effects on the comfort of intercity bus users by oscillatory model with ten degrees of freedom

The paper analyzes the effects of vibrations on the comfort of intercity bus IK-301 users. Evaluation of vibration effects was carried out according to the criteria set out in the 1997 ISO 2631-1 standard for comfort in public means of transport. Comfort is determined for the space of a driver, passenger in the middle part of the bus and passenger in the rear overhang. Also, the allowable exposure time to vibrations in drivers for the reduced comfort criterion was determined according to the 1978 ISO 2631-1 standard. The bus spatial oscillatory model with ten degrees of freedom was developed for the needs of the analysis. Bus excitation was generated applying the Power Spectral Density of the asphalt-concrete road roughness, as described by the H. Braun model. The allowable vibration exposure time for the driver’s body decreases as the spring stiffness of the driver’s seat suspension system increases. Simulation was performed using the MATLAB software.