Improving rail station access with feeder bus network optimization and mode shifts

Because of financial constraints, many transit agencies are trying to balance their budgets and provide an efficient transit network and services. This paper presents an improved model for feeder bus network development problems. The proposed approach consists of three main components: (a) an initial solution generation procedure, (b) a network features determination procedure, and (c) a solution search procedure. The tabu search is used as a metaheuristic method in the solution search procedure to find an optimal solution according to a given set of feasible solutions. The input for the new feeder bus network development problem includes the street network, demands from origins to the suburban rail station, and related parameters. The output demonstrates an optimized feeder bus network system and service frequencies for each route. The results show that the proposed method can be used by transit planners to optimize feeder bus systems that provide access to rail stations and other activity centers.