Planning interchange points to improve the service quality of local bus transportation:: A case study of service provision in Gijon, Spain

The aim of this paper is to divide the bus network of Gijon (a Spanish city) into "urban" and "rural" lines, in order to achieve a higher service level at no additional cost. To redesign the bus network, we use a linear programming model, which takes both demand and costs into account. After considering the distribution of all costs among the lines, we finally divide the mixed lines (urban/rural) into either urban or rural, obtaining a surplus of buses that are then reassigned to urban lines. For the service to rural lines we propose the use of four interchange points where rural passengers join the urban network. Data comes from the municipal bus company of the city. The results overall show that a 50% increase in service quality can be achieved for 5 million out of 17 million passengers without increasing-total costs.