Article ID: | iaor20171656 |
Volume: | 51 |
Issue: | 2 |
Start Page Number: | 441 |
End Page Number: | 456 |
Publication Date: | May 2017 |
Journal: | Transportation Science |
Authors: | Mirchandani Pitu B, Adler Jonathan D |
Keywords: | energy, combinatorial optimization, decision, programming: integer, heuristics |
Alternative‐fuel vehicles are gaining popularity as a mode of transit, and research is being done into how current infrastructure can accommodate them. The problem of vehicle scheduling consists of assigning a fleet of vehicles to service a given set of trips with start and end times. Vehicle scheduling changes when alternative‐fuel vehicles are used since the vehicles can carry only a limited amount of fuel and can refuel only at fixed locations. This paper presents the alternative‐fuel multiple depot vehicle scheduling problem, a modification of the standard multiple depot vehicle scheduling problem where there is a given set of fueling stations and a fuel capacity for the vehicles. The problem is formally defined and formulated as an integer program, and a branch‐and‐price algorithm is proposed to solve the problem. A heuristic solution is also presented, and both are tested on randomly generated data and data on the Valley Metro bus network in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area.