Assisting a Public Transit Agency with Planning of Bus Schedules using Computer Simulation: A Collaborative Project between Cornell University and Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit (TCAT) in Ithaca, NY

In this paper we present results from a service learning project carried out byfour Master of Engineering students in the School of Operations Research and Industrial Engineering at Cornell University during the 2003-2004 academic year, on behalf of the local transit agency, TCAT. The project participants developed a simulation model to evaluate schedule changes and applied it to a proposed shortening of the time between bus arrivals, or “headway”, on TCAT’s Route 81 circulator bus that serves the Cornell campus in Ithaca, NY. The model was developed by adapting a commercial simulation software package called ProModel that is usually used to simulate the layout of manufacturing facilities. Use of the simulation model helped TCAT planners better understand the implications of the proposed schedule change to segment-by-segment passenger counts at stops and on-board vehicles. Based on our experience, we discuss a number of issues both with the development of simulation models for transit operations and the practice of collaboration between university students and faculty and public transit agencies.