Optimization of urban–rural bus services with shared passenger-freight transport: Formulation and a case study

The bus sharing services for passenger and freight transport in urban–rural bus systems have recently been advocated as a useful tool for making full use of idle bus capacities during off-peak hours. This paper proposes a model for designing the bus services with shared passenger-freight transport in an urban–rural bus network. Different types of vehicles for bus services are considered, including regular and shared bus services. The proposed model aims to minimize the total social cost of the system by optimizing the numbers of regular and shared buses, bus schedules, and space allocation of shared buses’ compartments for passenger and freight transport. An adaptive large neighborhood search algorithm is developed to solve the proposed model. A case study of Hubei province, China is conducted to illustrate the performance of the proposed solution algorithm and to estimate and forecast the benefits generated by the shared passenger-freight transport services. The results show that the shared passenger-freight transport can significantly improve the efficiency of the urban–rural bus system and create a “win–win–win” situation for the passengers, the bus operator, and the society.