Optimization of Electric Bus Scheduling for Mixed Passenger and Freight Flow in an Urban-Rural Transit System

• Transport accessibility and urban-rural connectivity are seen as critical aspects of rural economic development. In the transit network, passenger flow between urban-rural corridors demonstrates directional imbalances and low utilization of scarce resources. Freight transportation, on the other hand, lags due to poor geography, high operating costs, and scattered demand. This paper proposes a new mode of public transit that integrates passenger and freight transport, providing a carrier for logistics while compensating for the low utilization of passenger transport. In this mode, each timetabled round trip is divided into one dedicated passenger trip with high demand and one mixed-flow trip with on-demand requests. A space-time-state network is constructed considering the picking-up time window, loading/unloading service time, and electric bus energy replenishment. A mixed-integer linear programming model is developed to optimize the bus schedule that covers the travel demands and the charging requests with minimized travel costs. A Lagrangian relaxation framework with a dynamic programming algorithm and sub-gradient method is presented for problem-solving. The real-life rural-urban transport instance and a simulated network demonstrate the operation of the new mode and validate the efficiency of the proposed method. The innovative concept and the optimization framework are expected to serve as a reference for public administration to alleviate passenger and freight transportation bottlenecks in the urban-rural context.

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Transportteknik och logistik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Transport Systems and Logistics (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Kommunikationssystem (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Communication Systems (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Datorsystem (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Computer Systems (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Urban-rural transport

Collaboration

Logistics

Costs

mixed flow transport

mixed freight and passenger flow

Public transportation

space-time-state network

electric bus scheduling

Schedules

Urban areas

Optimization

Lagrangian relaxation

Publikations- och innehållstyp

art (ämneskategori)

ref (ämneskategori)