Operation estimation on multiple public transport timetables integrated with vehicle scheduling in practice

ABSTRACT

Even-headway and even-load timetables have been in practice for the past 50 years. The former stipulates constant departures to cultivate users’ habits accordingly, whereas the latter is oriented from demand regulations aiming to further reduce waiting times. However, striking the balance between operation reliability (derived from even-headway timetabling) and an on-demand response to passenger fluctuation (referring to even-load timetabling) requires addressing major challenges presented by peak or alternatively off-peak demands. Our work addresses this imbalance by comparable estimation. The focused problem involves timetabling, vehicle scheduling, fleet size, and operation reliability based on an identical modeling framework simultaneously involving the three models. Nonetheless, their compatibility warrants a unified measure estimation. Hence, a mixed integer linear programming model is built. Finally, multiple timetabling performance comparisons are observed by the Auckland public transport system yielding sensitivity analysis.

Highlights

1. An identical modeling framework involving the four widespread timetables in practice.

2. Trader-off between the operation reliability and accommodating the passenger demand fluctuation.

3. A mixed integer linear programming model with cost-based benchmark.

4. A neighborhood search algorithm associated with a-priori valid cuts is employed to facilitate an efficient solution.

5. Investigating four operation schemes, a balance is identified between timetabling, vehicle scheduling, fleet size, and operation reliability.

KEYWORDS:

• Operation estimation
• public transport
• timetabling
• even-headway
• even-load

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [72101126]; Transportation Operation Subsidy Project of Guangxi Key Laboratory of International Join for China-ASEAN Comprehensive Transportation in 2021 [No. 21-220-21]; National Natural Science Foundation of China [72101127]; Jiaxing Key Laboratory of Smart Transportations Open Project Funding [ZHJT202303].