Public Transport Network Data; A Case-Study of Islamabad

An efficient public transportation network acts as a key contributor to promote urban mobility and sustainable development. However, in developing countries like Pakistan, the public transport systems lag behind in standardized and comprehensive transportation datasets triggering inefficient planning and un-optimized solutions for public mobility challenges. The study focuses on Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan, where road network expansion has overshadowed public transport advancement. Owing to the substantial city growth and absence of robust transportation data sets in the region, we present an extensive public transport network. It encompasses both formal (including Bus Rapid Transit services) and informal modes of public transportation (micro-transit i.e. wagons) in an integrated way. The paper portrays a data processing pipeline for acquiring and refining transportation data, including stops, routes, schedules, and fares. This data is organized in a nonlinear graph structure representing Islamabad's public transport network. The schedules are transformed into a standardized General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) format to estimate the travel time. This network will help in identifying mobility patterns and intra-city connectivity, facilitating urban development applications involving route optimization and smart journey planning. The key contribution of this article is data set creation which will be publicly accessible that would enable the transport planning authorities and research community to evaluate and strategize public mobility solutions effectively.