Integer programming formulation for deriving minimum dispatch intervals on a guideway accommodating through and local public transportation services

Vehicles are dispatched at regular intervals from station zero to station J. Vehicles 1,3, . . . stop at all stations along the guideway while vehicles 2, 4, . . . proceed directly to station J. Stations accommodating local vehicles are off‐line to enable through vehicles to pass the stations without delay. A mixed integer programming model is formulated with an objective of minimizing the time interval between dispatches of vehicles having identical operating patterns. The major constraints provide lower bounds on the headway between successive vehicles at the merge points just downstream from the off‐line stations.