P. Delle Site et F. Filippi, Bus service optimisation with fuel saving objective and various financial constraints, TRANSP R A, 35(2), 2001, pp. 157-176
Citations number
12
Categorie Soggetti
Politucal Science & public Administration","Civil Engineering
Journal title
TRANSPORTATION RESEARCH PART A-POLICY AND PRACTICE
A model for optimal bus service in urban areas is presented, Following the
recent increasing environmental concerns the model takes, as objective func
tion, the total (bus and car modes) reduction of fuel consumption. The opti
mal service level, price and bus size are determined subject to the operato
r financial constraint and the capacity constraint. Two formulations of the
financial constraint are considered: subsidy as fraction of costs and subs
idy as fixed amount. Bus-km and average revenue per passenger carried are u
sed as proxies for service level and price, respectively. Bus demand varies
with the generalised cost of bus travel according to a constant elasticity
. Transfers of passengers from car to bus are a given fraction of the deman
d newly attracted from bus. Model solution requires only one algebraic equa
tion to be solved for one of the service variables, the remaining being pro
vided in closed form. A selection of the results for a case study shows the
variations at optimum of bus service variables with the operating paramete
rs. The conditions under which bus policies based on service level and pric
e are effective to save fuel and the different policy implications deriving
from the two financial constraint formulations are highlighted. (C) 2000 E
lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.