SINTEF enters public transport optimisation

Efficient transport planning has always been an important research area for SINTEF Applied Mathematics. Through a R&D project for the European public transportation company Concordia Bus, SINTEF Applied Mathematics seriously stepped into the area of public transport. Being the largest bus company in Scandinavia and among the top ten throughout Europe, Concordia operates some 3.500 buses that carry an estimated total of 280 million passengers each year.

Concordia wanted to develop and implement a new system for shift and vehicle management. They acknowledged the cost reduction potential that lies in solving driver shift planning and vehicle rotation planning together as one combined optimisation problem. To address this potential, they wanted to develop a sophisticated planning tool that could be integrated with their management system. Moreover, they wanted to enhance competence within automated, optimised bus planning.

Early in 2000, Concordia and SINTEF started to develop an integrated shift and vehicle rotation optimisation system based on requirements presented by Concordia. A substantial effort was spent on collecting required information and formulating a detailed system specification. The main role of SINTEF was to design and implement the optimisation kernel. The first plans generated by the system were approved by the labour unions and implemented during autumn 2000.

The project was completed during spring 2002. SINTEF had by then delivered a tailored software module for cost-efficient, integrated shift and vehicle rotation planning. The versatile and flexible optimisation model makes it easy to configure the system to meet local demands.

The results are quite impressive. The optimisation kernel developed by SINTEF makes it possible not only to reduce the number of vehicles, but also to reduce total driving distance and non-productive time for drivers. In addition, it is a lot easier to accommodate individual driver demands. Operational costs are typically reduced by some 2-5 % when compared with plans generated by a state-of-the-art commercial planning tool.

SINTEF Applied Mathematics offers expertise and advanced technology that support combined shift and vehicle rotation planning. Integrated planning will increase efficiency and reduce costs substantially. We offer flexible solutions that accommodate specific needs of the customer and utilise the latest developments in planning methods and software technology. SINTEF may also contribute in problem analysis and consulting.