Time-of-Day Intervals Partition and Dispatching Intervals Optimization for a Bus Route

To investigate the passenger flow characteristics of electric bus routes and address the balance of demand problem between company and passengers, this paper proposes an integrated approach to operation period dividing and timetabling for a bus route. First, based on historical travel time data, an ordered clustering algorithm is used to divide the operating hours into time-of-day intervals. This approach incorporates constraints on travel time and passenger flow demand due to departure intervals, while considering the maximum number of vehicles permitted on a given route. With the objective of minimizing operation costs and passenger waiting time costs, we formulate a dispatching interval optimization model to determine the optimal dispatching intervals for the bus route. Finally, we utilize a one-dimensional search algorithm to solve the model. Case study is conducted to evaluate the performance of proposed method. Results indicate that compared to the current scheme, the optimized approach reduces the required number of buses by 14, with an increase in the full load rate on the highest section ranging between 0.58 and 9.59%.