Integrated optimization of train ticket allocation and OD-shared ticket sales strategy under stochastic demand

Rail ticket allocation is a typical technique of revenue management that the operators determine the quantity of each train tickets allocated to each OD (Origin-Destination) pair. For increasing ticket allocation scheme flexibility and selling more tickets under stochastic demand, rail operators propose OD-shared tickets that are shared by all OD passengers. For avoiding OD-shared tickets are cut off by short-distance OD at early stage which causes long-distance passengers fail to purchase tickets, we integrate OD-shared ticket sales strategy into ticket allocation problem to further utilize OD-shared tickets. We formulate the model to jointly optimize both OD ticket and OD-shared ticket scheme and OD-shared ticket sales strategy. We simulate passenger purchasing process to calculate the ticket sold quantity and nest it in PSO algorithm to solve the model. Numerical experiment results show that considering OD-shared ticket sales strategy effectively improves OD-shared ticket and total ticket revenue by 9.55% and 2.26% respectively.