HEURISTIC APPROACHES FOR SOLVING LARGE-SCALE BUS TRANSIT VEHICLE SCHEDULING PROBLEM WITH ROUTE TIME CONSTRAINTS

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2002

Subject Area

operations - scheduling, infrastructure - vehicle, planning - methods, planning - route design, mode - bus, mode - mass transit

Keywords

Transit operating agencies, Transit lines, Scheduling, Route time, Public transit lines, Multiple depot, Medium sized cities, Mass transit lines, Large cities, Intracity bus transportation, Heuristic methods, Fuel consumption, Formulas, Constraints, Case studies, Bus transit operations, Bus transit, Bus routes, Blocking (Schedules), Baltimore (Maryland)

Abstract

Vehicle scheduling (or blocking) is the sequencing of a series of bus trips into blocks or schedules that can be run by the buses. The length of these blocks is restricted by operational constraints such as bus fuel capacity. The blocking problem can be formulated and solved as a multiple depot vehicle scheduling (MDVS) problem, and route time constraints can be added that restrict the blocks from being longer than a specific time to account for real-world operational restrictions. This paper proposes new models for the MDVS and multiple depot vehicle scheduling problem with route time constraints (MDVSRTC). Compared to existing formulations, this formulation decreases the size of the problem by about 40% without eliminating any feasible solution. It also presents an exact and two heuristic solution procedures for solving the MDVSRTC problem. Although these methods can be used to solve medium-sized problems in reasonable time, real world applications in large cities require that the MDVSRTC problem size be reduced. Two techniques are proposed to decrease the size of the real world problems. The techniques can be applied to the same problem in a sequence. The problem of bus transit vehicle scheduling at the mass transit administration (MTA) in Baltimore is studied as an application of the model. The final results of model implementation are compared to the MTA's schedule in January 1998 and indicate that the proposed model improves upon the MTA schedules in all respects.

Comments

Transportation Research Part A Home Page: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

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