Optimization in Scheduling of Bus Commuter Services

This paper deals with timetabling process of a commuter bus services. The timetabling of commuter bus services in metropolitan cities is very complex one. As the numbers of buses are very much and service to be provided to the customer is crucial parameter, the main focus for the scheduling of buses can be "BEST" services offered to the customer in terms of minimization of Total Average Waiting Time (TAWT) of the customer at the various stations. A case study of VTCOS city bus services of Bhavnagar is taken here to demonstrate, how to achieve the goal with all the available current resources & improve the scheduling system by reducing the TAWT of the customer. As there are so many constraints when schedule is to be prepared, we have developed an algorithm to decide the best sequence and starting time of the buses during peak hour (when demand is highest) period and constraint propagation system to decide the running time of the buses on the specified route between stations with arrival time. The technique described here will be very much useful when resources are limited and requirements are heavy for the different kinds of commuter services (commuter train, transport and trams). The fundamental issue covered here is to schedule the routing of the buses in the city and the algorithm described here may help to schedule other kind of transportation services too.