Simulation-based Public Transport Multi-modal Hub Analysis and Planning.

The multimodal transport system concept, transportation systems management technology and other researcher's related studies of multimodal hub planning are analysed in the paper. A methodology for multimodal transport management support systems development is proposed based on the performed theoretical analysis. The proposed methodology includes three subsystems: transport traffic control support system, transport cruising time synchronization system, and user support system. The information of the population of the Latvian cities and other necessary data has been collected and processed using open source statistical data bases. The available transport timetables and structure details of the JSC “Riga International Coach Terminal” (further in text – Terminal) and Passenger Train Station are used as the input data for simulation model. The developed methodology is approbated using simulation technology. The proposed public transport multimodal node development methodology is tested on the Terminal bimodal transport hub “train - international bus”. The experiments are performed by analyzing capacity of waiting hall and passenger service level based on the average passenger transfer time between transport arrival and departure. Finally, recommendations on the increasing of the operation efficiency of the bimodal transport hub “train - international bus” are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]