Regional Bus Timetable Optimization Based on Node Importance

A regional bus timetable optimization model was developed to improve the public transit attraction by reasonably adjusting the headway of various periods to reduce the passengers’ waiting time and transfer time. First, topology network structure indices as node betweenness and node degree such as passenger flow at bus transfer stations are considered to evaluate the importance of nodes. Second, assessment of the system cost, the waiting time cost of transfer passengers, and the costs of schedule deviation, is conducted to evaluate the effect of the optimal method conducted in this paper. Then a regional bus timetable optimization model is developed and solved with applying a particle swarm optimization algorithm for the appropriate headway between the objective buses. To verify the validity of the model, three bus lines in Beijing were taken as an example. Results show that the total system cost can be decreased by 8.6% with this model.