Integrating underground line design with existing public transportation systems to increase transit network connectivity: Case study in Greater Cairo

•Underground circular line selection among several alternatives, in Greater Cairo city.•General and adaptable methodology for large scale transit networks.•The method minimizes the number of passengers’ transfers and maximizes the service. Connectivity is a significant problem in large-scale transit networks because the number of transfers required to conduct a trip is considered a discomfort by transit users. This paper presents a practical solution for an underground metro line planning problem by integrating existing bus and metro networks into a single connected transit network. The proposed method aims to obviate the usual combinatorial complexity when solving a transit route design problem. It aims to increase the overall transit system connectivity by selecting a consistent and non-demand-oriented criterion for the design. The metro lines are designed by minimizing passenger transfers through the transit network according to predefined demand node pairs. The design scheme offers a set of ring route alternatives for a sizeable case study in Greater Cairo. The case study selected sixteen traffic analysis zones, an existing metro network consisting of three main lines (113.6 km long), and twelve main bus lines (487.7 km long) for analysis. TransCAD software was used as the basis for coordinating the stations and lines of both the bus and metro systems. Subsequently, a passenger transfer counting algorithm was implemented to determine the number of transfers required between stations from each origin to each destination. A passenger origin–destination transfer matrix was created using the NetBeans integrated development environment to help determine the number of transfers required to complete trips on the transit network before and after proposing the new line. Based on the evaluation, the ring lines were highly efficient at significantly decreasing passenger transfers between stations with the minimum construction cost. This study will be of value during the strategic stages of the transit line design and will assist in rapidly generating initial solutions when certain demand information is unavailable.