Integrating parcel delivery schedules with public transport networks in urban co-modality systems

Co-modality transportation advocates using urban public transport to support urban freight operations. This study considers the implementation of co-modality in a fixed-route transit network comprising multiple lines following predetermined routes and schedules. We first develop a schedule-based parcel assignment model to formulate the synchronized co-modality transportation problem (SCTP). The effectiveness of the proposed arc-based meta-heuristic algorithm is substantiated through a comprehensive computational analysis, comparing its performance with that of an exact approach and genetic algorithm. Our findings reveal a nuanced trade-off between transportation efficiency and co-modal stop utilization, identifying a threshold beyond which additional stops do not improve efficiency but increase costs. We also discover a 'buckets effect' in co-modal capacities, suggesting that balanced vehicle and stop capacities are crucial for optimizing system performance. A case study with real urban transit data validates our model's potential for significant efficiency gains in co-modality transportation systems, offering actionable insights for urban logistics.