“…The study of bus operation optimization remains one of the most popular topics in the transportation field, including fleet allocation, network design, passenger behavior analysis, and timetable optimization ( Ceder and Wilson, 1986 , Ibarra-Rojas et al, 2015 , Shao et al, 2022 ). But in recent years, the urban public transportation system has become one of the main mediums for the spread of the epidemic because of dynamic passenger boarding and alighting and uncertain in-vehicle movement ( Borjigin et al, 2023 , Jardim et al, 2022 , Qian and Ukkusuri, 2021 ). Public transportation has been significantly affected by the coronavirus disease, and ridership in major cities worldwide has dropped about 60% to 95% ( Fernandez Pozo et al, 2022 ), which has caused a dramatic reduction in fare income and considerable budget deficits.…”