Hyper-heuristic Optimisation for Advanced Zero Carbon Public Transport Planning

**As cities and regions seek to decarbonise, decarbonising public transport presents a major challenge. For example, the electrical requirements from electrifying a bus network could be between 1-15% of town's total grid capacity\[1\].** Our previous research evidences that a like-for-like replacement of buses, increases the infrastructure needed by 25%, will push electrical infrastructure beyond its limit and increase costs to operators and consumers.

Over 4bn bus journeys are made every year\[2\] and the new National Bus Strategy aims to significantly increase that number describing buses as "the easiest, cheapest and quickest way to improve transport". But, through years of under-investment, bus planning capability and skills have been hard hit. With a new national focus on improving bus services, while also transitioning to zero emission fleets, there is a critical need for new tools to support the industry.

**VISION:** Our vision is to deliver an end-to-end, optimisation system for collaborative Bus Service planning. The system will intelligently accomodate the detailed design of zero emission bus routes and fleets, providing operators and public authorities with the infrastructure and passenger modelling insights they need to make informed long-term decisions for their bus network.