Route Search Method for Railway Replacement Buses Adopting Ant Colony Optimization

In recent years, Japan, and especially rural areas have faced the growing problems of debt-ridden local railway lines along with population decline aging population. Therefore, it is best to consider discontinuation introduce replacement buses secure transportation methods people in areas. Based on above background, targeting that may be discontinued near future, appropriate bus stops when provided potential were selected, present study proposed a method introduces routes for adopting ant colony optimization (ACO). The improved ACO was designed developed based requirements set concerning route length, number turns, road width, accessibility zones without as well constraint conditions turns stops. Original network data generated processed geographic information systems (GIS), these are used search optimal 8 target line (JR Kakogawa line). By comparing Dijkstra’s algorithm, its relevance verified needing further improvements revealed.