Performance evaluation of bus depots and routes and determining the headway for single and overlapping routes

Abstract

In this research some of the important issues related to the bus transit system of a metropolitan city have been undertaken. It is well known that making more productive use of resources is an important issue of any transport system. Though all the components of the transit planning process are important, some of them have more impact on the operational economy and customer satisfaction. The major objectives of this research are (i) to assess the efficiency of bus depots, (ii) to evaluate the performance of bus routes and (iii) to determine the headway/frequency of buses for a single route and overlapping routes. A Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model has been developed to assess the efficiency of bus depots. Three inputs and one output have been used in this model. Constant Return to Scale (CRS) model of DEA is used for calculating technical efficiency and Variable Return to Scale (VRS) model of DEA is used to evaluate pure technical efficiency. The results showed that out of 17 depots, four are efficient (VRS Score=1) and the remaining 13 depots are relatively inefficient. The first model determines the best frequency / headway for a single route. The second simulation model determines frequency of a single bus route with variable headway. In the first model, the bus is despatched at fixed intervals as per the headway in a given time period from the terminus irrespective of the number of passengers arriving at the stages and the number of passengers waiting at the stages. The third simulation model developed determines the best release load for overlapping routes. Overlapping of routes means that some of the stages (stops) are common to more than one route. Also, it is found that the total number of trips without overlapping is equal to the number of trips obtained with overlapping. However, the average waiting time and the total cost are less for the case of overlapping. Corresponding to the best release loads, bus release times are generated by the model and the time table is obtained. newline