Thursday, May 24, 2012

[klwhpdsr] Circular transit model

N stations equally spaced around a circular track.  Express trains can pass local trains.  Riders arrive uniformly to all stations, wanting to travel uniformly to all stations.  Any other simplifying assumptions.

First, given a schedule, determine the shortest itinerary for a rider wanting to travel between stations.  This might involve transfers to express trains, going backwards.  A* search will work.

Next, design an optimal schedule of local and express trains.  There are many (infinite) possibilities of what stops the a particular express train stops at.  Things get complicated quickly.

What is the optimality criterion?  Perhaps minimize the total number of passenger-minutes.

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