A Variable Neighbourhood Search-Based Algorithm for the Transit Route Network Design Problem

Abstract

The transit route network design problem (TRNDP) has long attracted research attention, with many metaheuristic approaches proposed for its solution. So far, and despite the promising performance of Variable Neighbourhood Search (VNS) variants for vehicle routing problems, the performance of the algorithm on the TRNDP remains unexplored. In this context, this study develops a VNS-based algorithm for the problem at hand. The performance of the algorithm is tested using benchmark networks used in bus transit network design and compared with some of the most recent and efficient methods from the literature. Results show that the algorithm yields superior results over existing implementations in short computational times.