Don't stop just yet! A simple, effective, and socially responsible approach to bus-stop consolidation

1 Bus-stop consolidation is one of the most cost-effective ways for a transit agency to improve the 2 quality of their bus services. By removing unnecessary stops, buses will have reduced runtimes, 3 which can lead to higher frequencies and/or fewer buses on a route. Unfortunately, current 4 research on bus stop consolidation and stop spacing focuses on complex mathematical models 5 that are difficult for agencies to apply, and that overlook many important real-world 6 considerations. The goal of this paper is to propose a new bus stop consolidation methodology 7 that is realistic, simple, and effective, while at the same time being sensitive to people with 8 reduced mobility. The new methodology is tested on the bus network of the Société de transport 9 de Montréal (STM), Montreal, Canada. Adopting this simple methodology is expected to remove 10 23% of the network’s stops while only reducing the system coverage area by 1%. The removal of 11 these stops could result in morning-peak savings of 109 hours of operating time and the 12 elimination of a bus from 42 routes at the system level. This methodology can be applied to any 13 urban bus network, and thus can be of interest to transit agencies and transportation researchers. 14 15