Running On A Faster Track

February 16, 2011

TAU develops scheduling tool to save time on public transport

What matters for commuters is not just if the train will be on time, but how long the journey will take. It’s an important factor in public transportation and can make the difference in helping commuters choose mass transit over more polluting and costly transport like cars or airplanes.

Dr. Tal Raviv and his graduate student Mor Kaspi of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Industrial Engineering in the Iby and Aladar Fleischman Faculty of Engineering have developed a tool that makes passenger train journeys shorter, especially when transfers are involved “” a computer-based system to shave precious travel minutes off a passenger’s journey.

Dr. Raviv’s solution, the “Service Oriented Timetable,” relies on computers and complicated algorithms to do the scheduling. “Our solution is useful for any metropolitan region where passengers are transferring from one train to another, and where train service providers need to ensure that the highest number of travellers can make it from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible,” says Dr. Raviv.

Saves time and resources

In the recent economic downturn, more people are seeking to scale back their monthly transportation costs. Public transportation is a win-win “” good for both the bank account and the environment. But when travel routes are complicated by transfers, it becomes a hard job to manage who can wait “” and who can’t “” between trains.


It’s not about adding more resources to the system, but more intelligently managing what’s already there, Dr. Raviv explains.

More time on the train, less time on the platform



“Let’s say you commute to Manhattan from New Jersey every day. We can find a way to synchronize trains to minimize the average travel time of passengers,” says Dr. Raviv. “That will make people working in New York a lot happier.”



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