Solving the Urban Transit Routing Problem Using a Cat Swarm Optimization-Based Algorithm

Presented in this research paper is an attempt to apply a cat swarm optimization (CSO)-based algorithm to the urban transit routing problem (UTRP). Using the proposed algorithm, we can attain feasible and efficient (near) optimal route sets for public transportation networks. It is, to our knowledge, the first time that cat swarm optimization (CSO)-based algorithm is applied to cope with this specific problem. The algorithm’s efficiency and excellent performance are demonstrated by conducting experiments with both real-world as well as artificial data. These specific data have also been used as test instances by other researchers in their publications. Computational results reveal that the proposed cat swarm optimization (CSO)-based algorithm exhibits better performance, using the same evaluation criteria, compared to most of the other existing approaches applied to the same test instances. The differences of the proposed algorithm in comparison with other published approaches lie in its main process, which is a modification of the classic cat swarm optimization (CSO) algorithm applied to solve the urban transit routing problem. This modification in addition to a variation of the initialization process, as well as the enrichment of the algorithm with a process of improving the final solution, constitute the innovations of this contribution. The UTRP is studied from both passenger and provider sides of interest, and the algorithm is applied in both cases according to necessary modifications.