Route Cycle Times

The following excerpt was taken from the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Report 30, page 4.

Cycle time is the time it takes to drive a round trip on a route plus any time that the operator and vehicle are scheduled to take a break (layover and/or recovery time) before starting out on another trip.

Typical service standards attempt to maximize the length of the route design per cycle time, while providing for the minimum amount of layover/recovery time allowed. Maximizing route length per cycle time utilizes equipment and labor power most effectively. However, other considerations make this optimization difficult to achieve.

Other considerations that make optimization of labor and equipment difficult include:

• the need to maintain consistent time between vehicles on a route (headway).
• adjusting for changes in ridership and traffic during the day (for example, rush hour vs. non rush hour).
• planning for vehicles to arrive at common locations so that passengers may make transfers to other routes (timed transfers).

These considerations often require additional layover/recovery time beyond the minimum allowed.