Improvement in direct bus services through route planning.

Improvement in directness of bus services, i.e., without intermediate transfers, can be a key leverage to incentivize the use of bus transport across cities worldwide. Thus, there is a clear need to design the bus route network for an increase in direct bus services and consequently enhance bus transport attractiveness. Accordingly, this work develops two mathematical formulations to optimize route network redesign without a major overhaul of the existing network. The results of the formulations are easy to implement and also computationally tractable. The first formulation determines alternative feasible paths for all given routes. The second determines the set of paths that maximizes direct passenger-kilometers (PKM) travelled over the given road network specified by a set of Origin-Destination pairs. The approach is applied to an area in Delhi, India using CPLEX and MATLAB for computations and analyses. Results reveal that for the redesigned network, the improvement in direct PKM travel is more than 35%. Additionally, there is more than 8% travel time saving as compared to the existing network due to better bus stop coverage. Lastly, the formulations have the capability to either incorporate or leave out metro (or other public transport) services available in the city. Further, the models also give the ability to policy makers to set resource constraints according to the availability of resources. • Tractable mathematical models to maximize directness. • The models work within the existing framework of routes. • The models give the ability to policy makers to set resource constraints. • The models have the capability to incorporate other modes of PT. • The models demonstrated to yield substantial improvement in directness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]