Description of multimodal transport networks by means of graph models

Abstract

The main objective of organising multimodal transport is to meet the public’s demand for transport services as much as possible while making the most efficient use of rolling stock. In order to determine the efficiency of a transport system the paper proposes that it should be viewed as a collection of different local transport systems. The issue of organising multimodal transport is related to many aspects of passenger services and rail transport operations (forecasting passenger flows, developing combined train schedules, features of the TH (transfer hub) and station complexes, etc.). The article details the way multimodal passenger chains are represented in the form of graphical models. The goals of using the constructed graphs are defined: solving problems of visualisation and analysis of multimodal transport chains as well as solving the complex problem of optimising the scheduling and planning of vehicle stops at passenger transfer points. It has been shown that the main requirements for organising this type of passenger transport are to minimise the total travel time of vehicles in order to reduce management costs for operators and to maximise the number of passengers carried in order to better meet passenger demand.