Fixed Job Scheduling Model for Single Depot Transit Vehicle Assignment

A basic fixed job scheduling model to formulate the single depot transit vehicle assignment (SDTVA) is proposed. Formulating the transit vehicle assignment to the fixed job scheduling problem allows transportation engineers to make use of those out-of-the-box theories and solution methods already developed for fixed job scheduling problem. The proposed model takes block as the basic unit of scheduling and takes the travel time constraints into consideration. Based on the concept of the "First Come First Serve" greedy algorithm, a solution algorithm is introduced with a realistic example of campus routes scheduling at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) to demonstrate the application. An optimal result is achieved and shown directly in a Gantt chart. Compared to the current vehicle scheduling, the optimal outcome of the proposed fixed job scheduling model for SDTVA can obtain better scheduling to reduce the vehicles consumed when providing the same amount of blocks and thereby improve the transit system\´s operating efficiency.