Knowhow

The mobility transition essentially aims to achieve a more sustainable future by shifting as much motorized private transportation (MPT) as possible toward climate-neutral, inclusive, clean, and safer eco-friendly transportation options (public transit, walking, cycling, and car-sharing). This means changing the “modal mix” (i.e., the distribution of passenger mobility across different modes of transportation).

To plan a journey: For many internet platforms and on smartphones this still requires a pre-decision to be made regarding a means of transport (airplane, train, car etc) as well as the selection of transition point/s from the ”world of the traveller“ to the “world of the transport company“, i.e. train stations, bus stations, airports etc. More and more innovative IT companies in cooperation with transport companies are providing tools to plan the journey a bit more intelligently.

Authors: Matthias Müller-Hannemann and Mathias Schnee, University Darmstadt Abstract: the original abstract text will be reflected as follows:

Author: Felix Gündling, Technische Universität Darmstadt, April 2014 Introduction: Most timetable information systems available today allow for finding train connections which are optimal regarding multiple criteria. All resulting journeys offered to the traveler start at a departure station and end at an arrival station. 

Authors: Felix Gündling, Pablo Hoch, Karsten Weihe Abstract: Multi modal journeys often involve two trips: one outgoing and one return trip, as in manyMulti modal journeys often involve two trips: one outgoing and one return trip, as in manycases, the traveller would like to return to her starting point.

Authors: Matthias Müller-Hannemann, Mathias Schnee Abstract: The search for train connections in state-of-the-art commercial timetable information systems is based on a static schedule. Unfortunately,public transportation systems suffer from delays for various reasons. Thus, dynamic changes of the planned schedule have to be taken into account. A system that has access to delay information about trains (and uses this information within search queries) can provide valid alternatives in case a connection does not work. Additionally, it can be used to actively guide passengers as these alternatives may be presented before the passenger is already stranded at a station due to an invalid transfer.

Authors: Matthias Müller-Hannemann and Mathias Schnee Abstract: We consider efficient algorithms for timetable information in public transportation systems under multiple objectives like, for example, travel time, ticket costs, and number of interchanges between different means of transport. In this paper we focus on a fully realistic scenario in public railroad transport as it appears in practice while most previous work studied only simplified models.  

Authors: Thorsten Gunkel, Matthias Müller-Hahnemann, Mathias Schnee   Abstract: The search for attractive night train connections is fundamentally different from ordinary search: the primary objective of a costumer of a night train is to have a reasonably long sleeping period without interruptions due to train changes. For most passenger it is also undesired to reach the final destination too early in the morning. These objectives are in sharp contrast to standard information systems which focus on minimizing the total travel time.  

For more than twenty years, Prof. Dr. Karsten Weihe has been cooperating with Deutsche Bahn AG on research into the field of timetable information systems. Since 2001, Prof. Dr. Weihe has been working at the University of Darmstadt with the professional consultancy of Wolfgang Sprick (datagon GmbH). Felix Gündling and Dr. Mathias Schnee, assistants of Prof. Dr. Weihe, have been working on the project which will be introduced here: multimodal travel planning. Additional current research is being undertaken in order to create travel plans which allow a high probability of arriving at the target destination on a fixed date and at a fixed time, as well as off-peak connections early in the morning or late in the evening. All these projects are financed by Deutsche Bahn. In partnership with the University of Darmstadt, datagon have started to cooperate with suppliers of other transportation systems in special aspects of intermodal mobility.

MOTIS is a timetable and mobility information system. You can find an introductory presentation of the Department of Algorithmics at the Darmstadt University of Technology at https://www.algo.informatik.tu-darmstadt.de/#motis (German). The following chapters point out all the unique features which, as far as we know, are not found in other systems.