Conceived for the simulation of transit systems, in the last few years the schedule-based approach has been expanded and applied to operational planning of other transportation schedule services besides mass transit, e.g. freight transport. This innovative approach allows forecasting the evolution over time of the on-board loads on the services and their time-varying performance, using credible user behavioral hypotheses. It opens new frontiers in transportation modeling to support network design, timetable setting, and investigation of congestion effects, as well as the assessment of such new technologies, such as users system information (ITS technologies).

The contributors and editors of the book are leading researchers in the field of transportation, and in this volume they build a solid foundation for developing still more sophisticated models. These future models of scheduled transportation systems will continue to improve the accuracy and sensitivity desired in forecasting the performance of public transport systems.