Development of feeder routes for suburban railway stations using heuristic approach

In this paper a heuristic algorithm is discussed for development of feeder routes to railway stations. The heuristic algorithm is a part of a model that has been developed for operational integration of suburban railway stations and public buses. The model has two distinct components, the first part is development of feeder routes for public buses to suburban railway stations and the second part is determination of optimally coordinated schedules of feeder bus services for the given schedules of suburban trains. The second part of the model is beyond the scope of this paper. Andheri and Vileparle suburban railway stations on a western railway line in Mumbai, India were taken as study areas, and extensive data collection was done at these railway stations. Various nodes and their potential demands from these railway stations were identified, and the demand-deviated feeder routes were developed for Bombay Electric Supply and Transport buses, which are being used as public buses in Mumbai, India.