Inter-city bus scheduling for allied carriers

Inter-city bus carriers have increasingly entered into alliances with other carriers as a means of forming complete networks and improving operation efficiency. Vehicle fleet routing and timetable setting are not only important in inter-city bus carrier operations, but are also related to alliance effects. The setting of a good timetable cannot only enhance the allied inter-city bus carriers' operating performance, but also be a useful reference for alliance decision-making. In this research, we develop several coordinated scheduling models by combining vehicle fleet routing and timetable setting. To evaluate the models, we perform a case study using real operating data from two Taiwan inter-city bus carriers. The preliminary results are good, showing that the models could be useful forinter-city bus carrier's alliances.