Abstract
Limited-stop service is useful to increase operation efficiency where the demand is unbalanced at different stops and unidirectional. A mixed scheduling model for limited-stop buses and normal buses is proposed considering the fleet size constraint. This model can optimize the total cost in terms of waiting time, in-vehicle time and operation cost by simultaneously adjusting the frequencies of limited-stop buses and normal buses. The feasibility and validity of the proposed model is shown by applying it to one bus route in the city of Zhenjiang, China. The results indicate that the mixed scheduling service can reduce the total cost and travel time compared with the single scheduling service in the case of unbalanced passenger flow distribution and fleet constraints. With a larger fleet, the mixed scheduling service is superior. There is an optimal fleet allocation that minimizes the cost for the system, and a significant saving could be attained by the mixed scheduling service. This study contributed to the depth analysis of the relationship among the influencing factors of mixed scheduling, such as fleet size constraint, departure interval and cost.
Highlights
In many urban cities, transit operation strategies are commonly used to improve the efficiency and reliability of transit systems
(1) The cycle time of limited-stop service achieved a savings of 5.76% compared to that of single scheduling: a normal-service visiting every stop on a line at its optimal frequency
(2) When the load factor constraint is activated, these services tend to be replaced with higher frequencies on limited-stop services, and the total cost of the mixed scheduling service decreases with the increasing load factor
Summary
Transit operation strategies are commonly used to improve the efficiency and reliability of transit systems. Three different operational stopping strategies are commonly used in urban bus operations: short turn, deadheading, and limited-stop service [1,2,3,4,5]. Express or limited buses stop at only a few stops along a route, while a parallel “local” or regular route serves all of the limited and intermediate stops. In actual practice, these services in systems such as Transmilenio (Bogota, Colombia), Transantiago (Santiago, Chile), and Metro Rapid (Los Angeles, CA, USA) have proven to be highly attractive. In Chicago, the user satisfaction increased for both limited-stop and local service after the introduction of the limited-stop service
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