Comparing the performance of metaheuristics on the Transit Network Frequency Setting Problem

The Transit Network Frequency Setting Problem (TNFSP), an NP-Hard combinatorial optimization problem, has been frequently addressed in previous investigations, most of which employ metaheuristics. However, previous studies have not investigated to determine the best metaheuristic and the most effective parameter values for the TNFSP. This study aims to fill this research gap by comprehensively comparing five well-known metaheuristics, namely, Artificial Bee Colony, Differential Evolution, Firefly Algorithm, Genetic Algorithm, and Particle Swarm Optimization, on the TNFSP. The best parameter configurations for employed metaheuristics are determined using the brute-force method. The comparative results not only highlight the significance of metaheuristic selection in addressing the TNFSP but also reveal the importance of choosing the most suitable parameter values for these metaheuristics. Furthermore, the metaheuristics are performed on the transit networks obtained from previously published studies for comparison purposes. The results demonstrate that the metaheuristics achieve better frequency sets than the original frequency sets of the used transit networks.