The Simultaneous Vehicle Scheduling and Passenger Service Problem

Passengers using public transport systems often experience waiting times when transferring between two scheduled services. We propose a planning approach which seeks to obtain a favorable trade-off between the conflicting objectives passenger service and operating cost, by allowing some moderate modifications of the timetable during the vehicle scheduling phase. This planning approach is referred to as the Simultaneous Vehicle Scheduling and Passenger Service Problem (SVSPSP). The SVSPSP is solved using a large neighbourhood search metaheuristic. The proposed framework is tested on data inspired by the express-bus network in the Greater Copenhagen Area. The results are encouraging and indicate a potential decrease of passenger waiting times in the network of 10-20%, with the vehicle scheduling costs remaining largely unaffected.