Traveling itinerary problem in a scheduled multimodal transportation network for a fixed sequence of cities

PLoS One. 2023 Nov 3;18(11):e0287604. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287604. eCollection 2023.

Abstract

Developing an efficient and economical journey plan in multimodal transportation networks is of significant and fast-growing importance, but it is still an annoying experience for a traveler. This paper aims to find the journey plan at a combined cross-border and inter-regional level when visiting a sequence of cities while utilizing several transport modes to reduce travel costs and planning time. We study a traveling itinerary problem in a scheduled multimodal transportation network with constraints on both arcs and nodes as a new extension of the shortest path problem. We formulate a 0-1 integer linear programming model for the traveling itinerary problem and develop an exact algorithm that finds a combined cross-border and inter-regional low costs journey plan. We present case studies based on real-world transport data to illustrate the usefulness and computational efficiency of the proposed approaches. We compare the results with the previously proposed approach to demonstrate the benefits of multimodal journeys. Finally, we compare the results with the solution obtained by the general-purpose 0-1 integer linear programming solver to evaluate the computational time.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Cities
  • Transportation* / methods
  • Travel*

Grants and funding

The work of L. Buzna was in part funded by the project VEGA 1/0077/22 – Innovation prediction methods for optimization of public service systems, in part by VEGA 1/0216/21 (https://www.minedu.sk/podpora-vysokoskolskej-vedy-a-techniky-vega-kega/), “Design of emergency systems with confliction criteria with the tools of artificial intelligence, in part by APVV-19-0441 (https://www.apvv.sk/) – Allocation of limited resources to public service system with conflicting quality criteria, and in part by the Operational Program Integrated Infrastructure 2014-2020 “Innovative Solutions for Propulsion, Power, and Safety Components of Transport Vehicles” through the European Regional Development Fund under grant ITMS313011V334 (http://www.vyskumnaagentura.sk/sk/).