Tool: Public transport rescheduling

Timetable synchronization seeks to optimize the timing of bus arrivals at transfer nodes, ensuring minimal waiting times for passengers transferring between routes. This is particularly important in multi-modal transport networks, where seamless connections between different transport modes significantly influence passenger satisfaction, including new shared modes. The availability of new shared modes at the arrival of public transport vehicles is a key variable that interacts with public transport scheduling decisions. Timetable synchronization is essential for creating an efficient and user-friendly public transport network. It plays a critical role in improving service quality, enhancing connectivity, and promoting sustainable urban mobility.

Yhe bus timetable resynchronization problem considering passenger demand and in-vehicle passenger load is examined, in work developed by the Technical University of Athens. The goal is to (a) re-synchronize the timetable of bus lines to maximize the synchronized transfers at the transferring nodes (b) to maximize the number of the passengers benefiting from the synchronization and (c) to investigate the impact of in-vehicle passenger load on the perceived passenger travel times. The proposed tool builds on the bus timetable resynchronization problem and expands it by introducing the concept of generalized passenger travel times, which reflects how increased in-vehicle passenger load leads to longer perceived passenger travel times.