DFG Project: Robust Integrated Circulation, Daily Duty and Service Sequence Planning in Public Transport

Background

Mobility and transport have become more and more the focus of attention in recent years because, in addition to the advantages of transporting people as well as goods, the associated disadvantages are also increasingly being seen. With emissions, noise, time lost due to traffic jams and many other aspects, this concerns strategic sustainability goals that (must) bring about a rethink with regard to mobility and transport. In this context, local public transport (LPT) comprises a basic provision for people with regard to their mobility wishes, in order to be able to participate in transport by means other than (motorised) individual transport. Public transport helps to guarantee transport services while taking environmental protection into account. Public transport is also increasingly taking into account environmentally oriented goals and strives to be climate and environmentally friendly. This can be done with the help of renewable energy, emission-free buses and trains, and efficiency gains through good planning.

With the help of planning, it is important to ensure that public transport services are provided efficiently, taking into account many restrictions and objectives. This concerns minimum requirements of public welfare, cost efficiency with regard to the use of resources, but also fairness aspects for drivers and staff as well as their satisfaction at work (e.g. consideration of personal wishes regarding working hours and overtime). In particular, the planning of vehicle rotations and staff rosters must be treated integratively in order to meet these objectives and restrictions. In addition to the traditional objectives and restrictions, those that ensure planning through adequate and timely, if necessary even anticipatory, consideration of disruptions are increasingly of interest.

Project goals

The aim of the project is the development and evaluation of methods for the integration of circulation, daily service and service sequence planning with consideration of robustness in public passenger transport. The following four sub-goals can be formulated:

  1. Development of a prototypical software for the integration of the three phases
  2. Realisation of new optimisation potentials through the integration (both cost minimisation and more employee-friendly duty scheduling)
  3. Consideration of robust efficiency for resource scheduling against disruptions in execution (such as delays, staff absences)
  4. Development of new solutions for the integration models on a practical scale

Implementation

The project is being realised as a joint DFG project between the FU Berlin (Prof. Dr. Natalia Kliewer) and Leuphana University Lüneburg. The contact persons responsible for the project at Leuphana are Prof. Dr Lin Xie and Ms Liping Ge. The practical partners are the system providers Init AG, Moveo Software GmbH and HOCHBAHN AG.

The project is scheduled to run until April 2022.

Team

  • Prof. Dr. Lin Xie