Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 00 (2011) 000–000 www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia EWGT 2012 – 15 th edition of the Euro Working Group on Transportation Design and operation of Demand Responsive Transportation systems Rui Gomes a* , Jorge Pinho de Sousa a, b , Teresa Galvão Dias a a Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal b INESC Porto, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal Abstract Providing quality public transportation may be extremely expensive when demand is low, variable and unpredictable. Demand Responsive Transportation (DRT) systems try to address these issues with routes and frequencies that may vary according to observed demand, by adapting solutions in real-time. The design and operation of DRT systems involve multiple criteria and have a combinatorial nature that prevents the use of traditional optimization methods. In this work we have developed an innovative Decision Support System based on a Dynamic Vehicle Routing model, integrating simulation and optimization, to help design services, minimizing operating costs and maximizing the service quality. Preliminary experiments with simple cases inspired in real problems, have shown the potential of this DSS for efficiently designing and managing DRT services. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the EWGT Keywords: Simulation; Multiple-Objectives; Heuristics; Public Transport; DRT. 1. Introduction Transportation systems are a key factor for economic sustainability and social welfare, but providing quality public transportation may be extremely expensive when demand is low, variable and unpredictable, as it is the case of disperse rural areas or some periods of the day in urban areas. Demand Responsive Transportation (DRT) services address this problem with routes and frequencies that may vary according to the actual observed demand. Due to this added flexibility, the service provided by the * Corresponding author. Tel.: +351 22 508 2132; fax: +351 22 508 14 40. E-mail address: rjgomes@fe.up.pt.