Both holding strategies at key stops (previous and Prefol holding) have shown an almost similar impact on reliability indicators. Model out-put showed that control strategies such as headway-based dispatching could significantly improve headway regularity by almost 62% and the waiting time by 51% on average. Four different types of strategies were selected and implemented according to Route U32 (Kuala Lumpur) specifications. Therefore, a simulation model of bus service was developed to study the strategies to alleviate it. The primary objective of this research is to improve the reliability of high frequency of bus service and simulation tools currently being used by the public transportation companies. Therefore, four reliability indicators were selected in this study to fill the gap in the literature and cover both passengers’ and operators’ perceptions of reliability: waiting time and on-board crowding level from passengers’ perspective, and headway regularity index at stops (HRIS) and bus bunching/big gap percentage from operators’ perspective. Companies have their own definition of bus service reliability, and they mostly neglect the passengers’ perspective of reliability. According to literature, there is no consistency in reliability definition and indicators. After a comprehensive review of the literature, a significant gap was recognized in the field of public transportation reliability. Therefore, bus users and bus service providers face travel time variation and irregularity. Bus services naturally tend to be unstable and are not always capable of adhering to schedules without control strategies.

Bus simulator 18 building bus model