Project:
Scheduling of fixed revenue bus routes
Result:
Minimisation of bus fleet and non-revenue travel requirements.
1. Problem Statement
- Large operation with thousands of fixed revenue routes scheduled onto hundreds of buses driving more than 60 000 km per day;
- Revenue routes have constraints which include the start- and finish- time and locations;
- Drivers have constraints such as the total working hours, total driving hours and total consecutive driving hours;
- Buses are constrained by the total distance before refueling and depot selection;
- Project launched to identify whether improvements can be made on the current schedule in relation to the bus fleet and non-revenue travel requirements.
2. Solution Approach
- A scheduling algorithm was developed to minimise the bus fleet size required to service all revenue routes whilst minimising the total non-revenue travelling distance;
- Routes were allocated to buses based on position and time whilst actively adhering to driver and bus constraints;
- A travel matrix was compiled to establish the minimum travel distances between routes.
3. Project Outcomes
- Duty master (inclusive of all revenue routes);
- Reduction in required fleet size (number of buses reduced by 4%);
- Non-revenue travel distance reduction (11% saving).
