EURO 2024 Copenhagen
Abstract Submission

3956. Optimizing stopping patterns in public transport

Invited abstract in session TD-51: Network Design for Public Transport, stream Public Transport Optimization.

Tuesday, 14:30-16:00
Room: M5 (building: 101)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Anita Schöbel
Department of Mathematics, University of Kaiserslautern-Landau
2. Ricardo Reicherz
RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau
3. Sven Jäger
Department of Mathematics, RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau

Abstract

In order to increase the travel speed of trains or buses in public transport, it may be beneficial
to skip some stops on their routes. In such skip-stop services, a line is divided into two
sublines (let's say a green and a red one) which are operated alternatingly. The stations are
also divided into two sets with usually non-empty intersection, a set of green and a set of red stations.
The green line only stops at green stations and the red line only stops at red station.
With such a pattern, it is possible to increase the travel speed of the trains.
However, there now may exist pairs of stations which have no direct connection any more forcing
passengers to transfer between the red and the green line. It may even happen that passengers have
to take a detour to travel from an origin to a destination.

We consider the problem of designing skip-stop patterns from a passenger-oriented point of view.
Given a number p of stops to be left out (together in both lines) and a set of origin-destination
pairs representing the passengers' demand, we aim at finding stopping
patterns that minimize the number of transfers, the number of passengers who need a detour, or
the traveling time of the trains. For all three objectives we provide IP formulations and characterize
optimal solutions. We then combine these objectives and show which of them are in conflict and
which of these goals can be reached simultaneously. The results are illustrated at examples.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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