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The line planning problem is one of the fundamental problems in strategic
planning of public and rail transport. It consists in finding lines
and corresponding frequencies in a transport network such that a given
travel demand can be satisfied. There are (at least) two objectives. The
transport company wishes to minimize operating costs, the passengers
want to minimize travel times. We propose a new multi-commodity
ow model for line planning. Its main features, in comparison to existing
models, are that the passenger paths can be freely routed and
that the lines are generated dynamically. We discuss properties of this
model and investigate its complexity. Results with data for the city of
Potsdam, Germany, are reported.
In this paper we introduce the fare planning problem for public
transport which consists in designing a system of fares maximizing
revenue. We propose a new simple general model for this problem.
It is based on a demand function and constraints for the different
fares. The constraints define the structure of the fare system, e.g.,
distance dependent fares or zone fares. We discuss a simple example
with a quadratic demand function and distance dependent fares. Then
we introduce a more realistic discrete choice model in which passengers
choose between different alternatives depending on the number
of trips per month. We demonstrate the examples by computational
experiments.
Can OR methods help the public transport industry to break even?
How would you build a public transport system? For example, have a look at
Berlin. The BVG, Berlin's public transport company, maintains a network
of 2,423 km, operates 197 lines with 3,286 stops, using 1,554 busses, 1,391
subway cars, and 599 trams from 12 depots, and has 13,409 employees [7].
The BVG currently transports about 800 million passengers per year and
covers about 40% of the total non-pedestrian traffic volume of the city [18].
Does Berlin have a "reasonable" public transportation network? Does
the BVG run a "good" transportation system? Is it "efficient"?
These are difficult questions. In fact, politicians, transportation managers,
customers, taxpayers, etc. frequently employ judgments such as "good"
and "efficient", but nobody can give a defiition what this exactly means.
Since almost every public transportation system in the world is in the red,
the cheapest system is no public transportation at all. On the other hand,
the most convenient system for the passenger - a stop in front of every house
with direct connections to everywhere - is much too expensive. What is the
right compromise? Operations Research has no good answer either - so far.
But OR can improve aspects of public transportation significantly, as we
want to demonstrate in the following.