Long-term Collaboration Mechanism for Disruption Recovery Service in Public Tram Systems

Trams are playing increasingly important role in today's public transport systems, as they are punctual and friendly to the environment, in addition to high capacity compared to buses. But the normal function of this above-ground light rail system can be interrupted by unexpected events. This research adopts the disruption recovery approach used in Munich and Berlin, Germany – the best service acclaimed by the public, to examine the collaboration mechanism with a taxi company to provide fast recovery service during tram disruptions. Because of the spontaneous nature of disruptions, a proactive contract-based collaboration strategy is formulated. The two involving parties’ decision functions are developed and analyzed both individually and interactively as a game to generate the optimal solutions. Numerical sensitivity analysis of critical parameters are conducted to shed more lights on decision-making and implementation.