A Multilayer Network Approach for the Bimodal Bus–Pedestrian Line Planning Problem

In this paper, we formulate and solve the urban line planning problem considering a multilayer representation of a bimodal transportation network. Classical formulations are usually constructed over a planar network, which implies the need to introduce several strong non-linearities in terms of frequencies when modeling transfer times. In the proposed network representation, each candidate line is stored in a specific layer and the passengers’ movements for each origin–destination pair are modelled considering a strategy subgraph, contributing to a sparse model formulation that guarantees feasibility and simplifies the assignment process. The methodology is first tested using the Mandl network, obtaining results that are comparable in terms of quality with the best metaheuristic approaches proposed in the scientific literature. With the aim of testing its applicability to large scenarios, the proposed approach is then used to design the main urban transit network of Seville, a large scenario with 141 nodes and 454 links, considering artificial unfavorable demand data. The reasonable computation time required to exactly solve the problem to optimality confirms the possibility of using the multilayer approach to deal with multimodal network design strategic problems.