Public Transport Case Studies and Applications
Public Transport Case Studies and Applications
Public Transport Case Studies and Applications
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C. Fleurent · S. Voß
As it is stated in the aims and scope of the journal, we aim to present all kinds of re-
search in the area of Public Transport: Planning and Operations. The goal is not only
to advance the state of the art but also to advance the state of the practice. “No sys-
tems, no impact!” (Nievergelt 1994) Only if we are able to incorporate our ideas and
algorithms in computer-aided systems in practice, we have a real impact. This refers
to all kinds of systems, whether they be planning and scheduling systems or infor-
mation systems. That is, besides theoretical papers, the journal also publishes case
studies and applications. In that respect we not only aim to serve academia but also
an audience of transport operators and consulting firms involved in development and
utilization or research of computer-aided planning and scheduling in public transport.
Transit companies have included operations research methods in their planning
process for decades. Because of their immediate impact in reducing operating costs,
vehicle and crew scheduling optimization algorithms were the first to be practically
implemented on a wide-scale basis. The initial models have since evolved in their
complexity, and typically integrate both the vehicle and crew scheduling components
of the problems. These models, combined with algorithmic advances, can lead to
significant savings in practice (see Holmes 2011 for a recent example).
S. Voß ()
Institute of Information Systems, University of Hamburg, Von-Melle-Park 5, 20146 Hamburg,
Germany
e-mail: stefan.voss@uni-hamburg.de
106 C. Fleurent, S. Voß
their study the authors deal with the problem of choosing a subset of interconnected
bus routes from among a given set of routes, while minimizing total travel time of the
users of the network. One of the simple and yet effective recent metaheuristics, the
ant system or ant colony optimization, is applied to design, among others, a bus net-
work using data from the city of Mashhad, Iran. Two of the three papers are provided
with extensive additional online material.
In summary, public transport presents several very interesting and challenging
problems. Fundamental research thus remains essential to continue moving forward.
However, it is only when this research is applied in practice to improve service and
efficiently use the scarce resources available that we have really reached our goal.
References
Goeldner D (2011) Translink Timetable Revamp, Australasian Bus and Coach (May 2011), 34–36
Hartog A, Huisman D, Abbink EJW, Kroon LG (2009) Decision support for crew rostering at NS. Public
Transp 1:121–133
Holmes M (2011) HASTUS implementation at MTA Bus Company. In: APTA multimodal operations
planning workshop, Seattle, August
Kroon L, Huisman D, Abbink E, Fioole P-J, Fischetti M, Maróti G, Schrijver A, Steenbeek A, Ybema R
(2009) The new Dutch timetable: the OR revolution. Interfaces 39(1):6–17
Nievergelt J (1994) Complexity, algorithms, programs, systems: the shifting focus. J Symb Comput
17:297–310
Salicru M, Fleurent C, Armengol JM (2011) Timetable-based operation in urban transport: run-time opti-
misation and improvements in the operating process. Transp Res. Part A 45:721–740