Optimization of shared passenger-freight transport services for urban–rural buses

Abstract

The shared passenger-freight transport services for urban–rural buses have been advocated to make full use of idle bus capacities during off-peak hours. Given the unstable characteristics of urban–rural passenger flow under the shared passenger-freight transport mode, how to allocate bus compartment space and ensure the service quality of both passenger and freight transport has become the critical issue. This paper proposes a flexible bus compartment space allocation method, based on which a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model aiming to minimize the total social cost is proposed to optimize the urban–rural bus timetable, compartment partitioning scheme, and freight allocation plan. An adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) algorithm is developed to solve the proposed model. This study is expected to prioritize passenger transport services while improving the quality of freight transport services, and demonstrate the application of the proposed urban–rural bus service optimization model through case studies.