An application of ahp method for examining the transport plan of passenger trains in bulgarian railway network

Abstract

Summary. In this study, a methodology was developed for transport plan selection of intercity trains in railway network using the method of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). For studying the transport plan, the following indicators have been chosen: the transport satisfaction, average number of train stops, average distance travelled, average speed, reliability, availability of service with direct transport and transport capacity. The methodology includes determination of variant schemes of transportation; determination of the number of trains by criterion of minimum direct operating costs for transportation of each variant scheme using linear optimization model; application of AHP method to define the weights of criteria and ranking the variants schemes; and selection of an optimal transport plan according to the criterion of a minimum ratio of normalized direct operating costs to the AHP score. The methodology was experimented in Bulgarian railway network.