Optimal frequency setting of metro services in the age of COVID-19 distancing measures

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2022

Subject Area

place - north america, place - urban, mode - subway/metro, economics - operating costs, economics - revenue, ridership - modelling, operations - frequency, planning - methods

Keywords

Public transport, metro, social distancing, COVID-19, operational costs, revenue losses

Abstract

Public transport is one of the most disrupted sectors of the COVID-19 pandemic with reported ridership drops up to 90% in majorly affected countries. As many government authorities strive to partially resume activities, public transport operators are in an urgent need for models that can evaluate the impact of different social distancing policies on operational and passenger-related costs. In this study, we introduce a mixed-integer quadratic programming model for the redesign of public transport services considering the operational, passenger, and revenue loss-related costs by evaluating the effects of different social distancing policies. Our model is applied at the metro network of Washington DC and provides optimal redistribution of vehicles across lines for different social distancing scenarios. This model can be used as a decision support tool by other policymakers and public transport operators that are in need of evaluating the costs related to the implementation of different social distancing policies.

Rights

Permission to publish the abstract has been given by Taylor&Francis, copyright remains with them.

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