Agent-Based Simulation of Operational and Fare Integration in Multi-Operator Bus Networks: Institutional Trade-offs and Robustness Analysis (1.1.1)

This study separates operational interoperability, fare integration and revenue-sharing governance in a stylised multi-operator bus network. An agent-based model implemented in NetLogo 7.0.3 represents passengers, buses and stations across 14 stations, nine routes and three operators. A 2 × 2 institutional design is complemented by financial clearing comparisons and 43,200 robustness runs: behavioural sensitivity (E1), a 243-configuration operational factorial (E2), and targeted joint behavioural–operational stress testing (E3). The audited experiment records show favourable interoperability effects on waiting, total travel time, transfers and realised generalised cost in all 1,944 E2 and 768 E3 configuration-level primary comparisons. Fare integration substantially reduces passenger expenditure but produces an aggregate deficit under the assumed accounting coefficients. Revenue-sharing rules redistribute operator-level outcomes without changing aggregate profit or passenger trajectories by construction. The model is intended to identify mechanisms and test conditional robustness, not predict city-specific policy effects. The paper contributes an explicit separation of access, pricing and settlement mechanisms coupled with reproducible factorial and stress-test comparisons.

Release Notes

MultiOperatorBus_ABM_V7 — Documentation Update for the V16 Manuscript

This release updates the scientific documentation of MultiOperatorBus_ABM_V7, an agent-based model developed in NetLogo 7.0.3 for investigating operational interoperability, fare integration, and revenue-sharing governance in multi-operator bus networks.

The documentation has been revised to support the manuscript entitled “Agent-Based Simulation of Operational and Fare Integration in Multi-Operator Bus Networks: Institutional Trade-offs and Robustness Analysis”, prepared for submission to Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory.

Main documentation updates

• Updated ODD protocol describing the model architecture, passenger boarding algorithm, institutional mechanisms, and performance indicators.
• Revised README with the experimental dataset DOI and reproducibility instructions.
• Updated BehaviorSpace experiment documentation covering the four institutional scenarios, revenue-sharing governance, and robustness experiments E1–E3.
• Clarification of the initial 20-tick operator-access restriction and its removal under operational interoperability.
• Explicit distinction between the boarding decision score and realised generalised journey cost.
• Documentation of the complete robustness programme comprising 43,200 simulation runs.

Model and experimental reproducibility

The NetLogo V7 source code, model logic, behavioural parameters, random seeds, and BehaviorSpace experiment definitions remain unchanged.

No additional simulations were conducted for this documentation update.

The experimental datasets are publicly available as ZIP archives containing CSV files at:

https://doi.org/10.82432/10317/25479

This update improves documentation and reproducibility without introducing a new computational model version.

Associated Publications

Associated publication under preparation/submission:
Ros, L., et al. Agent-Based Simulation of Operational and Fare Integration in Multi-Operator Bus Networks: Institutional Trade-offs and Robustness Analysis Manuscript submitted/in preparation for the Journal Simulation Modelling Practice and Theory.