Integrated Optimization of Seat Allocation for High-Speed Trains and Tour Buses Based on Customized Travel Services

Abstract

The provision of diverse transportation modes for tourism is primarily driven by individual demand, which ultimately leads to a lack of cohesive capacity allocation among different modes of transportation. This inadequacy fails to address the personalized and comprehensive high-quality travel aspirations of tourists. The paper considers the demand for whole-process tourism and analyzes the multi-modal combination of “high-speed train + tour bus”. A comprehensive multiobjective optimization model is built. The objectives of the model include the maximal tourists’ utility from customized travel services, the maximal revenue of high-speed trains and tour buses, and the minimal difference between supply and demand. By considering the main constraint conditions such as the capacity of trains and buses, the satisfaction of tourists and minimal transfer time, the grey wolf optimization is designed for the model. Then, the tourist routing scheme and transportation capacity allocation scheme of high-speed trains and tour buses are obtained. Finally, a case analysis using the Beijing-Hohhot railway illustrates the effectiveness of the results, which successfully aligned with the expected departure times for 84.9% of tourists, achieving an average departure time deviation of merely 7.20 min, alongside relatively minimal transfer times for tourists. These outcomes fulfilled the travel intentions of tourists while effectively corresponding to their booking requirements. The viability and applicability of the proposed approach are validated across various scenarios.