Bus timetabling and scheduling ITEC 810 Project Supervisor: Stephen Smith Xinru Ma ( )

Agenda What is this topic about? What are the current problems? What are the current solutions and limitations? How do we solve the problems? What are the expected outcomes? What are the future directions ?

What is this project about? Real-Time Traffic Information System Bus timetable and schedule management system For Sydney (STA) Dynamic Real-time Customer focused

Introduction Hand drawing timetable Timetable at each stop Electronic board On-time Bus Service

Background Scenario When will the bus arrive? Did I just miss the bus? Where should I get off? How long does it take to the destination?

Problem statement Current problems: Delays Left early Customers are upset Reason behind the problems: Fixed timetable Poor information provided Information not correct/out of date Customers want: Accurate bus arrival time Bus stop information Estimated arrival time

What customers want? Research shows customer want to know Actual bus arrival time (80%) On-time performance (70%) Delay time (60%) My opinion: Exact arrival time > on-time performance rate More information choices confidence Notification reliable commitment more travellers

Motivations Customer perspective: Productivity & efficiency Convenience Operator perspective: More customers More profits Others: Environment issues Increasing population Worse traffic condition

Aims of this project High-level Accurate & reliable timetable Real-time information Speed up journey Notify schedule changes To make a bus system similar to train systems

Current solutions Real-Time Passenger Information System STA currently offers: SMS service which communicates with Public Transport Information and Priority System Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System

Limitations of STA solution STA does not offerImportance Access to real-time informationCritical Notification when the schedule changesCritical Predicted arrival time on customers destinationsMedium Available seats information about the selected serviceLow Effective bus priorityLow High quality on-time arrivalCritical

Improvements Automatic Vehicle Location system Mobile Digital Computer (MDC) Drivers involvement Historical data to improve timetable Bus priority system On street surveillance camera Improved response time Traffic management system Data Management system and GIS Traveller Information system Computer Aided Dispatch and Scheduling

The proposed RTTIS

Components of the system

Improve system performance The on-time performance can increase by 20% with the aid of the Automatic Vehicle Location system and Computer Aided Dispatch and Scheduling. The travel time can be improved by 10% by implementing the Bus Priority system. Improve the emergency response time by 50%.

Expected outcomes Current systemRTTIS On-time performance95.9%98.9% On-time arrival60%95% Average delays2-5 minutes1 minutes Customer satisfactionMediumHigh Bus bunchHighLow

Challenges Uncertainties, unpredictable Traffic jam Incident etc. Hard to achieve real-time New technology to improve performance 90 seconds to apply traffic light changes

Future work E-ticket Wireless on bus Weather information system Integrate with other transport systems

End of presentation Thank you