Combined optimisation and MCDA based solution of the tram depot location problem

This paper deals with an issue of technical facilities location in a public transport system. The decision problem is formulated as a selection of the most advantageous alternative, i.e. the location of a new tram depot among the already existing facilities of this type. The selection is preceded by the evaluation of the alternatives. The assessment is not a trivial task, because there are many groups of interest with usually contradictory points of view. Therefore, the evaluation of the new tram depot locations should represent different aspects, e.g., economical, technical, environmental, and organizational. To handle such a complex decision problem the authors propose a methodology, which is a composition of the optimisation and multiple criteria evaluation techniques. The developed methodology is experimentally applied to the selection of one out of five tram depot locations in the public transport system of the city of Poznan, Poland. All the computational experiments are performed by means of optimization and multiple criteria decision aiding (MCDA) methods and tools, i.e. a linear optimization engine Solver Premium Platform and AHP method with its application AHORNsimple. The calculations are the basis for recommending the location of a new depot in the central part of the transport system network, which is a reasonable solution taking into account, e.g. the proximity of the main railway line, the possibility of triple distribution of the transport means from depot. The proposed methodology of the decision problem solution gives also an opportunity to create the hierarchy of considered tram depot locations as well as to compare the position in the ranking of the best solution with the existing one. Since the proposed methodology assumes the selection of the most suitable MCDA method to the problem under consideration and the decision maker’s preferences, it guarantees that the result of analysis becomes reliable and the decision aiding process is credible.