Abstract

In this paper we face a problem that considers the selection of several bus stops from many potential ones and the respective design of optimal routes for the bus transportation of personnel from the surroundings of their houses to the place in which they work. We propose an integer programming model for the mathematical formulation of the resulting location-routing problem. The proposed location-routing model is suitable to solve little and medium size instances of the problem. However, to face large size instances of the problem an alternative strategy is needed. For that purposes, we propose a hierarchical scheme by solving a set covering location model for the bus stops selection, followed of another one for the design of routes based on the previous bus stops selected. To solve the vehicle routing problem we also incorporate the heuristic of Holmes and Parker for the resolution of larger instances of the problem. The alternative strategy does not provide the global solution to the problem but it is easy to apply and essential to face larger instances of the problem.