Basic factors in bus scheduling
1) Traffic demand: Assessing the volume or traffic demand is essential in bus scheduling. Traffic survey should reveal traffic movement sector wise density, centripetal and centrifugal flow, peak and lean periods, competition from other modes of transport.
Road survey helps to judge the feasibility of road operation. Route length, route condition, traffic points running time, fixation of bus stop.
2) Run time: It is the time taken by a bus on a particular route. Depending upon the time taken for one trip, number of buses running on that route and their frequency can be decided.
3) Stand time: It is called as layover time. It consist of time taken by passengers, to get in or get down the bus, to load or unload their luggage, time taken by the conductor to report to the controller, to give tickets to the passengers, cleaning of the bus etc.
4) Maintenance time: It is time taken for the preventive maintenance of vehicle. It includes routine daily checks and greasing, washing, cleaning, toping up diesel etc.
5) Vehicle Utilization: It is used to indicate the number of kilometers operated per vehicle per day.
6) Requirement of buses: Calculate the number of buses required to be operated considering frequency of service for a maximum utilization of a bus.