Ferry Assignment and Routing Optimization for Public Ferry Transportation: A Case Study for Istanbul ？ehir Hatlar？

In this research, we study the trip-ferry assigment and ferry routing problem that arises in public ferry transportation services. The problem is motivated by the real problem that Istanbul ？ehir Hatlar？ Inc. needs to solve periodically while assigning ferries to ferry lines having predetermined tarrifs. Tariffs differ according to the season and day of the week. The trip-ferry assignment should consider passenger demand of ferry lines, line-ferry restrictions, ferry passenger capacities, ferry capacities of piers and ferry-pier restrictions. Additionally, working regulations of ferry personnel restrict ferry working hours. The objective is to minimize total cost of fuel consumption and outsourcing. First, a mathematical model was developed. As the mathematical model is inadequate for solving realistic size problem instances, a tabu search-based heuristic method is proposed. The effectiveness of the heuristic is analayzed on realistic data instances