RESEARCH PAYS OFF--RUCUS: AUTOMATED VEHICLE AND SCHEDULING SYSTEM

Schedule making is a time-consuming and exacting process, requiring the services of experienced people who must spend vast amounts of time engaged in tedious, repetitious computations. After new schedules have been adopted, it is necessary to organize all of the scheduled trips operated by a transit system into daily driver assignments. The procedure is called run cutting. This procedure has been simplified by a recently developed computerized approach. RUCUS (Run Cutting and Scheduling System), devised by Mitre Corporation, and in use since mid-1975. A study by the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC), St. Paul, Minnesota, documented specific savings in one case. The MTC cost-benefit analysis demonstrated the following advantages of RUCUS: Relieving the schedule maker of repetitive and error-prone tasks; Producing efficient and cost-effective runs; and Making a major contribution to the management information system data base. The annual savings in operating costs averaged $184,000 over a 5-year period. For 1982, the costs for operating RUCUS were $515,000 whereas the estimated benefits were $988,000 for a net savings of $473,000. This led MTC to conclude in 1982 that "using projected cost/benefit figures, the RUCUS system will have paid for itself in mid-1983.

• Record URL:
  • https://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/trnews/rpo/rpo.trn118.pdf
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/07386826
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

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• Publication Date: 1985-5

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 16-17
• Serial:
  • TR News
  • Issue Number: 118
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0738-6826
  • Serial URL: https://doi.org/10.17226/895

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automation; Benefit cost analysis; Information processing; Management information systems; Operating costs; Public transit; Run cutting; Savings; Scheduling
• Geographic Terms: Saint Paul (Minnesota)
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00396713
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jan 31 1988 12:00AM