intro

In passenger transportation, the combined use of several modes for one journey is also no
novelty, and use of public transportation has always required combination with other modes
(walking to the nearest embarkment point, if nothing else). With the complex networks of public
transportation that are available in many modern cities, the usefulness of intermodal travelling
has increased, and today it is necessary to consider several modes (train, bus, tram, metro, etc.)
for almost any form of local or regional public transport.
Multimodal
In passenger transport the temporal aspect is generally more important than when
handling freight. A travelling passenger will usually not accept an excessively long
waiting time for a transfer, whereas a container does not experience the actual travel, and
its journey will usually be acceptable as long as the departure and arrival times (and
thereby trip duration) are acceptable. For passengers, the value of time is much higher
than for freight, and intermodality will only be considered if it provides the fastest or
otherwise best journey. However, since the transfer operation is much less demanding
in passenger transport, the bottleneck effect is smaller for passengers than for freight, and
multimodality can often be a competitive alternative in terms of journey duration, e.g. in
commuting using public transportation.

Passenger transport

In personal transport the available modes can roughly be divided into foot, bicycle, car, bus, rail,
sea and air. Among these modes sea and air are typically only used for occasional, long-distance
transportation, and then generally in combination with one or more of the other modes.7 Bus and
train usually constitute the public, local transport, while travel by foot, bicycle (and motorised
variants thereof), and car provide individual means of transport. The use of public transport for a
journey usually also requires a (small) amount of individual transport, typically to get to and
from the nearest bus stop. This makes any use of public transport multimodal by nature; the
individual transport e.g. between the home and the first terminal/embarking point of a public
transport vehicle must necessarily employ some other mode. This journey can often be
performed by foot, but may also be considered an integral part of the whole transportation chain.
For example a traveller may choose not to use the nearest station, but instead use one that
possesses other qualities, such as better parking or shopping opportunities. However such
considerations lie outside the scope of this thesis, which will only consider a problem where the
passenger embark and disembark points have been determined beforehand, and are only
mentioned to illustrate the complexity of the multimodal transportation chain. In most urban
areas, public transportation is used by a large number of commuters in everyday life, and a lot of
passengers are affected by its daily operation. It is often necessary for passengers to perform
transfers to reach their final destination when travelling, and hence the effects of multimodal
public transportation are noticeable to many. This implies that there are considerable gains to be
made if the quality of interchange in public transportation can be improved. In passenger
transportation the mode change is less equipment intensive compared to freight transport, since
passengers generally transport themselves between the modes, which means that one of the
major obstacles of intermodal freight transportation is not present. Instead passengers experience
a certain inconvenience by having to change vehicle an inconvenience which can be reduced
considerably if the arrival and departure times are well-matched to reduce waiting time, and if
the physical layout of the terminals is suitably structured. Thus the constraints and objectives
considered in multimodal public transportation are not identical to those considered in
intermodal freight transportation. Terminal layout is an example of a planning problem that
occurs within both passenger and freight multimodal transportation, but with different
constraints. Freight terminals need space for handling equipment and (temporary) storage,
whereas passenger terminals may focus more on short walking distances, intuitive paths and
easily accessible waiting rooms.

Intermodality vs. multimodality

In freight transportation the terms intermodality and multimodality can often be used
interchangeably, however some differences of nuance exist. The term multimodality (multi, from
Latin, many) can be used to refer to any situation where more than one mode is available. It does
not always require that multiple modes are used, and can also refer to situations where different
tasks use different modes. Intermodality (Latin: inter, roughly between) refers to a situation
where interaction and changes between modes occur, and thus places more focus on the transfer
situation. The United Nations8 uses a definition of multimodality as carriage of goods by two or
more modes of transport and intermodality as the movement of goods in one and the same
loading unit or road vehicle, which uses successively two or more modes of transport without
handling the goods themselves in changing modes, thus stressing the (non)- handling of the
goods in the transfer situation. Similar definitions are used by the UN, EU and OECD. The main
distinction between these definitions seems to be that intermodality is required to use some form
of uniform packaging (e.g. containers) of the goods which facilitates transfers, by enabling
transfer without direct handling, while multimodality is not concerned with the means of
obtaining the modal combination. Thus transportation of bulk materials, such as grain or coal,
and liquid materials would be an example that can be classified as multimodal, but not
intermodal, transportation using the above-mentioned definitions. Crainic and Kim refer to a
similar definition, and point out that it is too restrictive, by ruling out mail services which include
sorting operations at terminals. However, an alternative interpretation would be that since the
sorting is not performed as part of the mode change itself, this situation is not ruled out by the
UN definition. As long as the mail is grouped (as part of the sorting) this does indeed provide
ways of handling the freight in larger quantities, without handling each item individually. The
alternative definition suggested by Crainic and Kim refers to the transportation of less-thanvehicle-capacity loads by nondedicated services [using multiple modes], as well as transfer
activities between these modes in dedicated terminals, thus focusing on consolidation and on
terminal activities. In passenger transport only the term multimodality appears to be commonly
used, and since the issues of packaging and transfer handling are irrelevant, a distinction seems
meaningless. In the context of this thesis the terms intermodality and multimodality will be used
interchangeably, since the mode choice is not considered per se, and is irrelevant for the purposes
considered here. Instead the modes and transfers to be used have already been determined, and
the models and solutions that are considered are based on these pre-determined modal decisions.
Thus the main parts of the thesis will deal with intermodal problems, with the focus being on the
side-effects that occur as a consequence of the use of intermodality, rather than the intermodality
itself.

Multimodal transportation centers can also serve as visitor information centers by providing
information to travelers on local attractions, shopping and cultural points of interest in the

community. They are often designed as distinct, attractive structures that serve as gateways to
their community. In some cases, these facilities are also designed to include leasable office space
for accommodating other potential facility users (OUTS, Greyhound and Amtrak for instance) as
well as leasable space for businesses that support passenger needs. Examples of businesses that
commonly locate within multimodal centers include restaurants, banks, coffee shops and
convenience stores.

JB Sentral Bus Terminal is a relatively new bus terminal built in the late 2000s as part of the new JB
Sentral Railway Station and accompanying JB Customs Complex. Located as part of the JB Sentral
Railway Station building, the terminal serves a number of local bus services to the outer regions of
Johor Bahru.

This terminal initially started operations as a bus terminal for Zon Barat (West Zone) public bus
services in Johor Bahru, referring to neighbourhoods and towns located at the west side of Johor Bahru
City. As a general principle, West Zone bus services ply destinations that are located along Route No. 3
(Tebrau Highway) or west of Route No. 1 (Skudai Highway). When the JB Sentral terminal started
operations, it helped to ease congestion along Jalan Wong Ah Fook (referred to Bandaraya or City
Square by most JB commuters), which used to be the starting and terminating point for all buses in
downtown JB.
Following the closure of Jalan Wong Ah Fook to all bus services, from 18th May 2015, all East Zone and
West Zone public bus services are amended to start and terminate at JB Sentral terminal, which led to
severe congestion and overcrowding at the terminal. While West Zone buses used to layover at the 11
bus berths before their next departure, bus operators such as Causeway Link and Maju now no longer
layover their buses at the terminal. Buses will disembark passengers at the entrance ramp to the
terminal, then proceed to layover on the side of the road along Jalan Jim Quee. Buses will only enter
the berth a few minutes before their next departure.