Optimized Design of a Backbone Network for Public Transportation in Montevideo, Uruguay

This article presents the application of exact and metaheuristic approaches to the problem of designing the backbone network of a hierarchically public transportation system for Montevideo, Uruguay. This is a very relevant problem in nowadays smart cities, as it accounts for many social and environmental impacts and also affects the dynamics of the cities. The design of the proposed backbone network is conceived in combination with the bus network, with the main objective of improving the overall quality of service and reducing travel times. Three different variants of the problem are solved, considering different design premises. Exact solvers are proposed for simpler variants of the problem, which account for maximum resilience and bounded travel times. An evolutionary algorithm is proposed for a multiobjectie version of the problem that optimizes cost and quality of service. The main results indicate that the computed optimized designs provide reduced end-to-end travel times, which improve up to five times over the current system, and are economically viable to be implemented.