Regional public transportation scheduling model based on welfare economics and DEA

In this paper, a regional public transport scheduling model based on the theory of welfare economics is proposed. First, the assumptions to simplify the regional transit-scheduling problems are established, and the public transportation operators and passengers surplus are defined which is derived from the theory of welfare economics. Considering the influence of government subsidies on the maximisation of social welfare, the regional transit-scheduling model is built. Meanwhile, as more than one scheduling solutions are available,data envelope analysis (DEA) is applied to chose the optimal solution of public transport operators from the perspective of welfare and efficiency. The influences with or without government subsidies on the social welfare and efficiency of public transportation are compared by an example. The results show that it is difficult to obtain an optimal solution for effective dispatching without taking the social product property of public transport and government subsidies into accoun...