由於政府服務虧損補貼數額不足，加以客運需求日益減少，部分地區之公路客運業者因不堪長期虧損，而提出部分偏遠服務路線於營運期限屆滿後不續營，而路線不續營將無法滿足受限搭乘者之民行需求。雖然，客運業者僅提出部分路線停駛的要求。但考慮偏遠地區服務的公平性與可能的路網密度經濟，仍應依其旅次起迄需求量，提出完整的路網設計方案。故本研究擬就供給面導向探討「如何在滿足現有路網中所有起迄需求量下，提供必要的營運路線」，並以最小業者總營運成本為路網設計策略目標，而後加入使用者總成本予以評估總系統成本之差異。 以路網設計課題而言，由於都市公車與地區性公路汽車客運之服務環境與需求特性之不同，其路線設計方式應有所差異；而與其他旅客運輸之基本營運方式與空間需求特性(少對多)分佈型態較為相似。故以相同抽象化模式－「車輛排程問題」為理論基礎，並以此構建直接路線模式，產生直接路網。 經實證分析高雄地區後，其直接路網之系統總成本雖可較現況路網節省23%之系統總成本，但因路網設計與其運量指派方式，容易使直接路網產生部分路線行駛相同區段(主路徑)，使總行車公里數提升，進而影響路線乘載率等問題，故應仍有改善之空間。因此於直接路網完成後研擬「主路線減班」與「轉運路線」兩方案；而後藉由營運績效之比較可知，由於轉運路線方案所產生之懲罰成本造成使用者成本與現況路網有大幅差距。故整體比較而言，以「主路線減班」之改善方案較為適用，並可節省26%之系統總成本。 最後，透過直接路網之敏感度分析發現：不同車容量大小不會改變路網結構，但車容量愈小，產生的班次數愈多，其行駛里程較現況高，反增加業者與系統成本，因此變動參數中以30人/車之車容量較不適合於傳統客運路線服務；而單程路線長度限制之設計參數值變動時，其單程路線里程長度愈短，可服務之起迄對則愈少，且產生之路線數則愈多，路網結構因而有所變異，故成本結構亦有所變動。 Many rural bus services are forced to close due to insufficient subsidy. However, the essential public transportation services are still expected to provide in rural area especially for the incapable, elderly, and young people. The network of bus service can affect the operation efficiency and cost. The objective of this study is to redesign the rural bus route network in order to reduce the operation cost and release the financial pressure of government subsidy. The OD patterns and travel demand characteristics of passengers in rural areas are analyzed in the study. The results show that most of the OD patterns of rural bus service are few-to-many, which are similar to school and commuter buses services. Then, the abstract model- Vehicle Routing Problem used in school bus services is modified to be a fundamental model to design new rural bus network. Kaohsiung County is chose to be an empirical study area. Several new bus networks are designed according to the OD table and different operation constraints. The results show that Bus Company can save more than 23% of total system cost due to reduce the total bus kilometers. For low demand area, two services strategies, they are ‘direct route with low frequency’ and ‘trunk-transfer route with high frequency’ are evaluated in the study. The penalty cost causes the direct service is better than transfer service in rural bus services. Beside, the study finds that the bus with capacity less than 30 seats per bus is not economical for conventional rural bus services.
