http://hub.hku.hk/bitstream/10722/188944/1/Content.pdf?accept=1

A review of urban transportation network design problems

The efficiency of a transport system depends on several elements, such as available technology, governmental policies, the planning process, and control strategies. Indeed, the interaction between these elements is quite complex, leading to intractable decision making problems. The planning process and real-time control strategies have been widely studied in recent years, and there are several practical implementations with promising results. In this paper, we review the literature on Transit Network Planning problems and real-time control strategies suitable to bus transport systems. Our goal is to present a comprehensive review, emphasizing recent studies as well as works not addressed in previous reviews.

Planning, operation, and control of bus transport systems: A literature review

This article focuses on optimizing a passenger train timetable in a heavily congested urban rail corridor. When peak-hour demand temporally exceeds the maximum loading capacity of a train, passengers may not be able to board the next arrival train, and they may be forced to wait in queues for the following trains. A binary integer programming model incorporated with passenger loading and departure events is constructed to provide a theoretic description for the problem under consideration. Based on time-dependent, origin-to-destination trip records from an automatic fare collection system, a nonlinear optimization model is developed to solve the problem on practically sized corridors, subject to the available train-unit fleet. The latest arrival time of boarded passengers is introduced to analytically calculate effective passenger loading time periods and the resulting time-dependent waiting times under dynamic demand conditions. A by-product of the model is the passenger assignment with strict capacity constraints under oversaturated conditions. Using cumulative input–output diagrams, we present a local improvement algorithm to find optimal timetables for individual station cases. A genetic algorithm is developed to solve the multi-station problem through a special binary coding method that indicates a train departure or cancellation at every possible time point. The effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm are evaluated using a real-world data set.

Optimizing urban rail timetable under time-dependent demand and oversaturated conditions

Few studies have adequately assessed the cost of transfers 2 in public transport systems, or provided useful guidance on transfer improvements, such as where to invest (which facility), how to invest (which aspect), and how much to invest (quantitative justification of the investment). This paper proposes a new method based on path choice, 3 taking into account both the operator’s service supply and the customers’ subjective perceptions to assess transfer cost and to identify ways to reduce it. This method evaluates different transfer components (e.g., transfer walking, waiting, and penalty) with distinct policy solutions and differentiates between transfer stations and movements. The method is applied to one of the largest and most complex public transport systems in the world, the London Underground (LUL), with a focus on 17 major transfer stations and 303 transfer movements. This study confirms that transfers pose a significant cost to LUL, and that cost is distributed unevenly across stations and across platforms at a station. Transfer stations are perceived very differently by passengers in terms of their overall cost and composition. The case study suggests that a better understanding of transfer behavior and improvements to the transfer experience could significantly benefit public transport systems.

/pdf/assessing-the-cost-of-transfer-inconvenience-in-public-573ru2i9a2.pdf

Assessing the cost of transfer inconvenience in public transport systems: A case study of the London Underground

This paper advances the field of network disruption analysis by introducing an application to a multi-modal transport network, capitalizing on the redundancies and improved connectivity of an integrated metro-bus network. Metro network resilience to disruptions can be enhanced by leveraging on public bus services. To ensure better acceptance among operators and commuters, we focus on introducing localized integration with bus services instead of designing an entirely new bus network to achieve the desired resilience to potential disruptions. This is accomplished by increasing the capacity of bus services that run in parallel with affected metro lines as well as those connecting to different metro lines. Our analysis starts with a network representation to model the integrated metro and bus system. A two-stage stochastic programming model is further developed to assess the intrinsic metro network resilience as well as to optimize the localized integration with bus services. The approach is applied to a case study based on the Singapore public transit system and actual travel demand data. The results show that the metro network resilience to disruptions can be enhanced significantly from localized integration with public bus services.

Enhancing metro network resilience via localized integration with bus services

This paper presents a global review of the crucial strategic and tactical steps of transit planning: the design and scheduling of the network. These steps influence directly the quality of service through coverage and directness concerns but also the economic profitability of the system since operational costs are highly dependent on the network structure. We first exhibit the context and the goals of strategic and tactical transit planning. We then establish a terminology proposal in order to name sub-problems and thereby structure the review. Then, we propose a classification of 69 approaches dealing with the design, frequencies setting, timetabling of transit lines and their combinations. We provide a descriptive analysis of each work so as to highlight their main characteristics in the frame of a two-fold classification referencing both the problem tackled and the solution method used. Finally, we expose recent context evolutions and identify some trends for future research. This paper aims to contribute to unification of the field and constitutes a useful complement to the few existing reviews.

/pdf/transit-network-design-and-scheduling-a-global-review-1wpxlo2o0t.pdf

Transit network design and scheduling: A global review

http://www.info.univ-angers.fr/pub/hao/papers/CIE10.pdf

Transit network timetabling and vehicle assignment for regulating authorities

This work deals with an original problem with regard to the traditionally sequential planning process in public transit networks. This problem aims at modifying the network's timetables without rendering the vehicle and driver schedules obsolete. The objective is to improve the quality of service for passengers through number and quality of transfers. This approach goes in the opposite direction compared to the usual approach which schedules resources once timetables are set. We propose a model and a solution method based on tabu search and a neighborhood specifically developed. Experiments are led on five instances related to a real transit network. Important gains are obtained on the considered case study, allowing for better mobility of users inside the network and on the intermodal level.

Improving timetable quality in scheduled transit networks

In the transit planning literature, network timetabling and vehicle scheduling are usually treated in a sequential manner. In this paper, we focus on combining important features of these two steps, and underline how their simultaneous optimization is meaningful and can bring important improvements to both quality of service and level of resources required. We deal with the objectives of networkwide quality of service through number and quality of the transfers and evenness of the line headways, and with the resources side through number of vehicles needed. Our approach is adapted to the problem faced by regulating authorities, treating among others intermodality, multi-periods for headways and travel times, and complex timetable schemes. We introduce an optimization procedure based on Iterated Local Search and present computational experiments carried out on a real large transit network, showing substantial improvements in both quality of service and level of resources compared to the current practice.

/pdf/transit-network-re-timetabling-and-vehicle-scheduling-46yibcb3dk.pdf

Transit Network Re-timetabling and Vehicle Scheduling

A driver-vehicle scheduling problem in a limousines rental company is studied. Given a set of trip demands to be covered, the goal is to find a driver-vehicle schedule that covers as many as possible of the required demands while satisfying a set of imperative constraints and optimizing several cost objectives. A formulation of the problem is given and a solution approach using local search is developed.

/pdf/a-heuristic-solution-for-a-driver-vehicle-scheduling-problem-3wf8wwts83.pdf

Valérie Guihaire

Papers

Transit network design and scheduling: A global review

Transit network timetabling and vehicle assignment for regulating authorities

Improving timetable quality in scheduled transit networks

Transit Network Re-timetabling and Vehicle Scheduling

A Heuristic Solution for a Driver-Vehicle Scheduling Problem