Monitoring the impact of unscheduled stops and unscheduled route deviations on bus service using Automatic Vehicle Location system: a case study

Cairo public bus service suffers from several problems such as unscheduled stops, unscheduled route deviations, and inaccurate schedules. This research aims to study those problems for a selected bus route in Cairo using a prototype AVL system. Locations of the unscheduled stops and unscheduled route deviations, along with other trip time and speed data, were collected. Passengers’ reliability on the unscheduled stops was compared to theirs on the official scheduled stops. Trip time was also modelled to assess the unscheduled stops’ impact on trip time, and to check the accuracy of the scheduled trip time. Moreover, the frequency and the distance of the unscheduled route deviations, as well as the bus stops skipped during the deviations, were investigated. Lastly, solutions were proposed, using the AVL system, for the studied bus service deficiencies; and recommendations were suggested for future research.