SERVICES

Running Time Calibration
Scheduled running times, in combination with specified minimum layover times, determine the steadiness with which operators of transit vehicles deliver the service intervals found in a timetable. Inaccurate running times -- whether too tight, too generous, or misallocated between segments -- undermine operational efforts to maximize punctuality and secure timed transfers at key terminals where low frequency routes meet. Inaccurate running times contribute to customer perceptions that the service is either "never on-time" or "far too slow."
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Scheduled running times are the most basic building blocks of a schedule. They consist of the amount of time allocated in a schedule for a bus or train to travel from one time point to the next. Layover, or recovery time, is the time allowed at the end of the route for late vehicles to get back on schedule.

Establishing accurate scheduled running times and layover requirements is best achieved through the statistical analysis of running time observations collected through the onboard systems such as Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) or Automatic Passenger Counters (APC) (see Data Processing for more information on our services in this area). The CSched team holds expertise in statistical analysis of running times not only through the HASTUS ATP running time analysis module, but also through other more universally available analysis tools such as EXCEL and ACCESS.

With the vast amount of data collected every day by on-board equipment, precise statistical analyses can be used to accurately distribute end-to-end journey time between each segment of a route, as well as within each terminal where extensive loading/unloading time (dwell time) is observed. Such statistical analyses must be conducted in line with system on-time performance evaluation policies. For example one highly popular calibration technique consists of setting runtimes so as to maximize the expected schedule-adherence. The process of backward memory, or cumulative segment calibration, eliminates problems involving the accumulation of small rounding errors inherent in a more traditional "segment-by-segment" analysis.

In the calibration of running times and recovery times, the CSched consulting team works with stakeholders to first determine performance targets for the operation. One example of a performance goal would be to set minimum recovery times to ensure any vehicle arriving at a terminal can make its next scheduled departure on time at least 90% of the time. The minimum recovery time required to achieve this goal is typically a function of the variability of the recorded historic observations. In other words, recovery times depend on how variable traffic conditions are for a given time of day from one day to the next. Another concurrent strategy may focus on maximizing for each time point the number of observations within an agency’s on-time performance window, such as “on-time zero to five.” The latter emphasizes on-time performance as a vehicle progresses along its assigned route.
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Schedule Writing & Cycle Analysis
Timetables define the core set of services offered by fixed-route transit, not only for the customers who consume the product but also for the operating personnel who execute the product. Transit agencies must therefore strive to accommodate both service effectiveness and service efficiency when developing timetables. While service effectiveness includes many things, here it applies to accurately matching service frequency with demand, minimizing customers' total journey times, and providing on-time transit services. Efficiency, on the other hand, involves optimizing the deployment of expensive resources -- in this case vehicles and crews and oftentimes terminal capacity. Timetables are often overlooked as the point at which efficiency and effectiveness are largely predetermined for the remaining schedule production steps.
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Vehicle Blocking
Vehicle Blocks determine how many vehicles are required to operate a given set of trips in a timetable. Vehicle blocks also define the characteristics of a vehicle schedule typically as "tight or generous, complex or simple." These characteristics are largely predetermined during the service planning and schedule writing phases of schedule production. Blocking together trips of a route with incompatible cycle times and headways may result in a schedule that would be either "too tight" or "too generous" and would therefore force interlining between routes, resulting in a "more complex" schedule. A moderate increase in complexity may produce significant efficiencies. However, large increases in complexity quickly reach a point of diminishing returns due to the hidden costs of managing very complex schedules.
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The process of vehicle blocking involves linking or hooking individual trips of a timetable into vehicle assignments. A minimum amount of recovery time is established in between each trip, to allow the schedule to recover from typical delays and variability in traffic and ridership. Blocking efficiency can usaually be improved by pairing (interlining) two routes with complementary cycle times to eliminate excess recovery time. Several strategies can reduce peak vehicle requirements such as documenting every potential deadhead between all in-service trip terminals to avoid pulling a bus into the garage while another is being pulled out of the garage. In addition, slight deviations to planned headways, (trip shifting) can create opportunity for new trip hooks not otherwise considered.

A logistical question faced by many agencies involves how to most efficiently assign bus routes to bus garages. This logistical challenge is addressed during the blocking phase of scheduling. Many constraints come into play such as minimum and maximum capacities at each garage and vehicle types supported by each garage. Minimum capacities are often defined for load balancing. Concurrent with satisfying garage capacity constraints are the typical goals of minimizing non-revenue hours and, if possible, reducing the total peak vehicle requirement through effective assignment. The CSched consulting team specializes in the use of advanced HASTUS features such as Minbus to provide informed decision support.

Recent projects modeled the optimal assignment fleet type to trips for clients who operate mixed vehicle fleets. Based on ridership, a given trip may be best served by a 30-foot vehicle in terms of capacity, but if no such vehicle is readily available it may be more cost-effective to use an otherwise idle 40-foot vehicle already on the street. This model essentially builds on the premise that providing more capacity will not adversely impact service quality in such situations where operational constraints allow multiple vehicle types. Such fleet optimization models incorporate fleet specific vehicle costs on a milage and time basis.
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Operator Run Cutting
The operator run cut determines how many transit operators are required to operate a given level of service under an established set of operating policies and work rules. Based on the location, length, and configuration of transit routes, crew schedulers must often make choices between creating work assignments that are, for example, either 7 hours long or 9 hours long. Typical work rules would require paying a guarantee of 8 hours for the 7-hour assignment or 9.5 hours (with overtime) for the 9-hour assignment. A collection of 7-hour assignments with no overtime would increase the total headcount while a collection of 9-hour assignments with overtime would reduce the total headcount. Reaching an optimal solution requires understanding the relationship between variable and fixed costs for the various categories of assignments within the work force.
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Production Support & Staff Training
Scheduling systems have become quite complex as they incorporate more sophisticated algorithms for optimizing vehicle and crew assignments. While offering a high degree of automation, these systems depend on the user's ability to impart his or her knowledge of the route network and operating practices through a series of programable, user-defined rules and parameters. Schedulers who practice their craft with a high level of excellence often become overwhelmed by the complexity of these systems and therefor do not take full advantage of the benefits they offer, whether though increased automation or improved efficiency. CSched provides on-site production assistance for scheduling staff during their adaptation of revised scheduling practices, whether implementing new technology or improving the results of existing scheduling systems. We emphasize productivity improvements achieved through automation, informed by traditional scheduling fundamentals.
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CSched offers basic and advanced training for all phases of schedule production. Basic scheduling courses include fundamentals such as cycle times and their relationship between headways and the required number of vehicles. The basic fundamentals also include hooking trips together to form vehicle blocks and then completing a visual analysis of a vehicle service curve to manually plot the design characteristics of a run cut. Based on analysis of the vehicle service curve, trainees determine how many of which types of work assignments to expect from a finished run cut. These basic principles of scheduling are reinforced through exercises conducted with the interactive (manual) features of their computer-assisted scheduling tools to help them more thoroughly visualize the concepts.

Advanced training and coaching of scheduling staff focuses on mentoring schedulers throughout their production process. Very often software training focuses too much on "what the software does" rather than on how to use the software to consistently achieve targeted results. The CSched team therefore advocates and provides a coaching approach in which they work side by side with schedulers to use their software tools in a production environment. This brings about a transition from knowledge of "what the software does" to skills of "how to use the software effectively."

The coaching process typically spans multiple sign-ups and includes the following exercises applied to production schedules: Assessment of service span and frequency through passenger load analysis and application of service policies, calibration of running times and layover requirements to meet on-time performance targets, evaluation of route connectivity and timed transfers to speed-up journey times, application of route inter-spacing along common trunks for better service frequency, optimization of fleet assignments with load balancing across multiple divisions to reduce operating costs, completion of scenario testing to improve vehicle blocking, operator run cutting and weekly rostering.
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Schedule Efficiency Analysis
With public funding sources at risk now more than ever, operating efficiency is under scrutiny by senior management and by the funding sources themselves. Vehicle operator labor expenses for a transit agency rank among the highest cost items in a typical operating budget. Procurement costs for rolling stock place a similar burden on capital budgets. Analysis of scheduling efficiency determines whether these expensive resources are being allocated as productively as possible in scheduled service. Alternative scheduling practices are explored to determine if incremental efficiencies are possible within the framework of existing work rules. CSched has undertaken Scheduling Efficiency Analyses for various transit agencies with such mandates being requested by either transit management, or by external auditors, and the firm has a demonstrated track record of mindfulness in balancing service effectiveness and service efficiency.
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Data Systems Integration
AVL and APC data collection systems feed demand analysis and operations planning tools. Scheduling systems feed payroll management software and public information platforms. These various data systems must be integrated to transform dreaded "data graveyards" into active sources of information for decision support and for proactive management of agency resources. CSched's main focus in this area is on employing vast quantities of transit operating data to support the planning, scheduling, and daily operations functions.
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Labor Negotiation Support
Evaluating potential changes to work rules is a dynamic process. Changing maximum spread limits for a work assignment, for example, presents a potential ripple effect on cost items such as guarantee, sign time, travel, and total headcount. CSched provides decision support for senior management by evaluating the financial impact of existing and proposed work rule provisions through modeling and simulation. We also propose alternatives based on our detailed knowledge of labor rules and operating practices throughout North America, Europe, and Australia.
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