The sphere of public transportation services in Australia is undergoing a transformation in response to a number of drivers, such as a need for inter-modal integration and widespread introduction of consumer information technologies. However, in order to better address new challenges associated with these changes one must first develop an understanding of the dynamic relationships between the way public transportation system operates and the many ways in which people use it to achieve desired mobility.
The public transportation company employed PwC to develop a solution for better decision-making and problem-solving. A model was built using AnyLogic 7 as a platform to unify and animate various static data into a dynamic system of interactions. The model is based on three sources of information: network structure provided in GIS format, service timetable in tabular form and ticket sales information gathered from a variety of systems.
Artem Parakhine, Senior Manager, Simulation Modeling and Analytics at PwC presented the project, model and results at the AnyLogic Conference 2014, and the presentation can be viewed on AnyLogic's YouTube channel.
The resulting model is able to simulate the whole network in its current state and in a number of potential future states, which can be achieved through structural or operational changes. More importantly, the model is able to show how the customers, inferred from actual collected ticketing information, would behave to complete their trip under the conditions of each scenario. Finally, the model is able to inform its owners on how potential and actual disruptions affect network performance from a customer's point of view.
