Hierarchical hub location model and hybrid algorithm for integration of urban and rural public transport

Abstract

Integration of urban and rural infrastructure is critical to integrating urban and rural public transport. A public transport hub is an important element of infrastructure, and it is the key facilities that serve as transferring points between cities and towns. The location of hub is related to the convenience of travel for urban and rural residents and the closeness of economic interactions between urban and rural areas. In this article, considering the background of the integration of urban and rural public transport, from the perspective of public transport hubs in urban and central town, a multi-level hub-and-spoke network is designed, and the location of integration of urban and rural public transport hub is determined. Based on the connection associated with central towns and the capacity constraints of hubs and to achieve the minimum total cost, this article proposes a mixed-integer programming model that employs a genetic and tabu search hybrid optimization algorithm to validate and analyze, which used the urban and rural public transport data from a specified area of Shandong province in China. The results indicate that the model can simultaneously determine locations for hubs in cities and central towns while minimizing total cost. The hub capacity constraint significantly influences the location of two-level hubs. The hub capacity constraint in the model can reduce the transportation cost for an entire network and optimize the transportation network. This study on urban and rural public transport hub location in a huband-spoke network not only reduces the transportation cost of the network but also completes and supplements the location theory of integration of urban and rural public transport.

Perspectives on modeling hub location problems

“…Hub network design is an important concern for liner shipping and Zheng et al (2020) studied the impact of the location of hub ports on the liner shipping networks. Hub networks can arise also in public transportation planning, in particular in the design of rapid transit systems and highway networks (see, for instance, Contreras et al, 2009b;Contreras et al, 2010;Martins de Sá et al, 2015a;Martins de Sá et al, 2015b;Zhong, Juan, Zong, & Su, 2018 ). Network planners are often interested in extending current transport options by constructing new highways or express lanes, or new rapid transit lines, and the many-to-many nature of O-D demand often leads to a hub configuration.…”

Reliable Hierarchical Multimodal Hub Location Problem: Models and Lagrangian Relaxation Algorithm

“…The justice-oriented view is a priority of public transportation in today's' societies; in this regard, Korani and Sahraeian [9] developed a hierarchical hub location model with emphasis on maximal covering approach. Zhong et al [33] presented a foundation for integrating urban and rural public transport in the form of a hierarchical hub-and-spoke network. They proposed a mixedinteger programming model to achieve minimum total routing cost, wherein a Genetic-Tabu search hybrid optimization algorithm was adopted for validation and analysis purposes.…”

A hierarchical hub location model for the integrated design of urban and rural logistics networks under demand uncertainty

“…3 In general, there are two types of nodes in a typical H&S network: hub node and spoke node. The location of a hub largely determines the express delivery cargo distribution and the connections between the hub and spoke nodes (Shang et al, 2021 ; Zhong et al, 2018 ). In a typical urban‒rural logistics network, there are three types of hubs and four kinds of hierarchical connections.…”