A Simulation Study of the Shuttle-Bus Pilgrim Transportation System between the Holy Sites for the 1422H Hajj Season

The shuttle-bus transportation system in the annual Islamicpilgrimage, known as Hajj, relies on using dedicated two-way lanesbetween the holy sites of Arafat and Muzdalifah, in the first segment,and between Muzdalifah and Mina in the second segment. Shuttlebuses have been used successfully for the past seven years to transportone group of pilgrims consisting of more than 160,000 pilgrims out of atotal of more than two million pilgrims. The Saudi Ministry of Hajjwould like to revise the current experience gained from this project andevaluate any constraints or shortcomings associated with it. In thispaper, a description of the shuttle bus transportation system that existedin the 2002 Hajj season is given. Next, a simulation model is designedfor this system and translated into a simulation program using theArena simulation system. This simulation model is used to conduct aseries of experiments designed with the goal of achieving a betterunderstanding of the characteristics and limitations of the system