Implementation of Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on an optimal segment of a long regular bus route

Major public transit routes evolve overtime due to changes in demand caused by variations, for example, in land use, household income. As well there are demand/supply interactions due to implementation of new transit technologies such as Light Rail Transit or Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and/or changes in mode of service, for example, skip-stop operations. Planning for such transitions must be done carefully and well in advance to enable on-time implementation. In this paper, we consider the transition from a long, regular bus route in a corridor to a route with a limited stop BRT along a segment of the corridor and a modified regular bus service along its full length. This problem is often faced by transit agencies when they try to make decisions regarding the design parameters of a BRT service. This transition can increase the average speed and maximum possible passenger flow on the route. The proposed approach optimizes the headways of the regular and BRT routes, and chooses the termini of the BRT segment as well as the limited BRT stops. Priority for BRT service is given to O–D pairs with a high value of passenger-hours, essentially the ‘product of the travel demand and the travel time’. Total optimal system costs before and after the mode transition is considered through analytical modelling, and a simple equation is derived for the difference. If the new optimal total system cost, including costs associated with passenger in-vehicle travel time, waiting time, vehicle operating costs, and system capital costs, is lower, the transition is favoured. Insights into the proposed transition are provided through the analytical modelling approach.