Public Transport to the fORe!
Appeared in: OR/MS Today, Apr 2006, Vol 33 (2), 30-40
| 05-22 | Ralf Borndörfer, Martin Grötschel, Marc E. Pfetsch
Public Transport to the fORe! Appeared in: OR/MS Today, Apr 2006, Vol 33 (2), 30-40 | |
Abstract: Can OR methods help the public transport industry to break
even? The
article gives evidence that there exist significant potentials in this
direction, which can be harnessed by a combination of modern
mathematical methods and local planning knowledge. Many of the planning
steps in public transport are classical combinatorial problems, which
can be solved in unprecedented size and quality due the rapid progress
in large-scale optimization. Three examples on vehicle scheduling, duty
scheduling, and integrated vehicle and duty scheduling illustrate the
level that has been reached and the improvements that can be achieved
today. Extensions of such methods to further questions of strategic,
online, and market-oriented planning are currently investigated. In this
way, OR can make a significant contribution to answer the basic but
extremely difficult question ``What is a good public
transport network?.
Keywords: Public transport,
vehicle scheduling,
duty scheduling
MSC: 90B20