A Heuristic Method for Public Transportation Network Design using Route Generation Algorithm

Public transportation network design is one of the most complex issues in transportation engineering where researchers usually apply simple heuristic methods to solve the complicated problem. Route generation algorithm is one of the heuristic methods that use the shortest path between high transit demand O-D pairs and expand the shortest path, called route generation algorithm, to cover more transit demand. In this paper, the expanding route generation algorithm has been revised in order to consider restrictions on minimum route travel time and length to the primary route generation algorithm. The proposed algorithm for route generation has been coded in a computer programs and used for transit network design in Sioux Falls test network. The results show that the algorithm reduces the number of transit routes in the test network by 70 percent and route overlaps length by one-third compare with the previous route generation algorithms used for transit network design on Sioux Falls.