Developing Passenger Hub Location Problem Based on Origin-Destination Trips Derived by Gravity Model (Case Study on Iran's Rail Network)

Iran’s geographical situation, in particular existing long-distance routes, makes rail transportation more attractive and efficient rather than the other modes of public transportation. Transport costs as well as passenger utility are main concerns for local and national authorities. Therefore, Hub location is an important problem in transport planning in which transport industries are looking for selected points for passengers to change trains from their origins to destinations. In this paper, a mathematical model for solving hub location problem is developed and validated on Iranian rail network. Passenger supplies and demand from origin to destination nodes are estimated using the well-known model of Gravity as well as the shortest path algorithm that is utilized for route assignment. Running the proposed procedure and model by GAMS revealed that choosing appropriate hubs, even in less sophisticated connectivity rail network, can significantly reduce the transport cost and enhance rail transport productivity over the rail network.