Creating Multi-Routes Combination Bus Timetable

This paper addresses the problem of creating a combination bus timetable for a given bus network with multi-routes so as to minimize the waiting time of non-transfer passenger and transfer passenger. It attempts to arrange the departure time of the bus in any route to satisfy the demand of passenger with minimum waiting time, and enables the transfer passenger from one route to another with minimum waiting time at the transfer station. In this paper, the problem is formulated as a nonlinear programming problem, and the departure time of each bus in any route is the decision variable. This problem is solved by particle swarm optimization (PSO). The computational results presented in this paper show that the optimization method presented in this paper can create a multi-routes combination bus timetable, which satisfy the passenger demands, to minimize the waiting time. A comparison between traditional timetable and combination timetable shows that combination timetable can perform better satisfying the mutative passenger demands and reduce more waiting time.