This article investigates the potential of integrating a shared goods and passengers
on-demand rapid transit system in urban areas. Although persons and goods movements
have different objectives and constraints, mixing their travels on the same network is
within current trends. So we investigate in this paper how they could share a rapid transit
network and use the available transportation capacity within a city more efficiently in an
interconnected way. Based on the common characteristics of personal rapid transit (PRT)
and freight rapid transit (FRT), this paper proposes an emergent and efficient transportation
solution in order to enhance the sustainability of city logistics. Next, the operational
level is focused on to characterize the dynamic transportation problem and to propose
two strategies to formulate it. This problem aims to respond to the number of transportation
requests arriving on a periodic basis with adequate service level while minimizing the
empty movements of a set of electric vehicles with limited battery capacity. An efficient
solution approach based on the forward optimization of periodic transportation
sub-problems is proposed and validated. The applicability of the PRT–FRT mode is demonstrated
and computational results in comparison to other transportation option is also
presented and discussed.