The Optimization of Tram Schedule under Semi-Exclusive Right-of-Way

Taking the tram line under semi-exclusive right-of-way as the research object, an optimization model of tram schedule has been established by considering the section running time, dwelling time, running state of intersections and running sections as the constraints. And a tram timetable optimization model is constructed, taking the tram travel time, dwell time increment and the minimum number of stops as the objectives. For obtaining a timetable with an equal satisfaction for the three objectives, the fuzzy mathematical programming approach is adopted to transform the problems into mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problems. The experiment results indicate that, by adjusting the section running time of trams and extending the dwell time properly, the total travel time of trams has been effectively reduced. The optimized travel time has been reduced by 2969s (4.9 min/tram) in comparison with the actual planned travel time, which is down by 18.3%. The case analysis has verified the effectiveness of the model and these empirical findings can give us some useful insights on the optimum design of tram schedule.